Things & things

(mini) Vacationmode

2010-04-30T09:32:00.001+02:00

Im of for the weekend. Im going to the coast and enjoy my weekend with some friends.
See you all next week.

Epic baking

2010-04-25T15:02:00.003+02:00

The last few months I've been trying to bake our own bread. I've had some succes, some fails and at best some okay bread. We were happy with it, the bread was tasty but it's consistency wasn't always good. Most of the time the crust was to hard or thick but crusty and when the thickniss was okay it wasn't crusty at all. I've experemintated with different types of flour, raising times, kneeding but still the bread was just okay.
But still we were happy with it because it was better then buying bread everyday in the bakkery because I could control everything that I put in the bread.

But now I found the best and I think eassiest recipe. Thanks to 'Artisan bread in five minutes' I baked this weekend the best bread ever.

Here is the recipe that I used:

* 3 cups lukewarm water
* 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
* 1 1/2 Salt (
* 6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Put the water, salt and yeast in a large bowl or food container and mix it with the flour. Stir with a long wooden spoon until all of the flour is incorporated into the dough, as you can see it will be a wet rough dough.

Put the lid on the container or cover the bowl but leave and opening so the gasses from the yeast can escape.
Let the dough rise for two houres at room temperature. The dough will be flat on the top and some of the bubbles may even appear to be popping.

After this you can bake your first bread or put it all in the refrigerator.
In both cases use a lot of flour on your hand when you take a piece of dough out. On their website you can find the best techniques to take out some dough without overhandeling it.

When your dough is freshly made let it the dough for your bread rest for at least 40 minutes, when it comes out of the refrigerator let it rest for about 90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a Baking Stone* on the center rack, with a broiler tray on the bottom, which will be used to produce steam.
Slide the loaf into the oven onto the preheated stone and add a cup of hot water to the broiler tray. Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes or until a deep brown color.

There are many great things about this recipe: it's simple, you dont have to use a lot of kitchen equipment that you have to clean afterwards, you have dough in your refrigerator waiting for you to bake it and it's practically foolproof and so yummy.
The people of the website are also very kind and willing to answer al of your questions so give them a visit and give their recipes a try.

Sustainability and your wardrobe

2010-04-13T20:26:00.002+02:00

I read this great article about sustainability and your wardrobe on Cargo Cult Craft.

A couple of years ago I saw this documentary about Indian cotton farmers. It really makes you think about where your clothes are from and what the inpact of your choices is on other people.

In relation to this There is another really interesting reportage about the company that makes these pesticides 'Monsanto'.

What do you think about this? Does it frighten you like it does me? Companies like Monsanto are just after trying to make as much profite as possible without thinking about the consequences.
It also makes me feel so powerless and angry, but what can we do?

This is what I do for myself:
* buy organic fruits and vegs or even better grow them yourself.
* buying organic fabrics can be really expensive so I try to buy everything in the thfriftshops.
* buy fairtrade and try not to buy things made with childlabour.
* get parabene free cosmetics

What else can we do? Have you some tips for me?

Thriftstore treasure

2010-04-08T13:42:00.003+02:00

This week I had lots of great finds in the thriftstore.
I bought a lot of vintage sewing notions and a juice maker with which I'm really happy.

But then I also bought a little childrens book called "More ant and bee". I picked it up because I like small books and the drawings are really nice.

I have the 1965 edition, it's in mint condition and I payed 50 cent for it. It seems that this book sells around 50 dollar on amazon. So you can imagine how happy I was that I picked up this little book.

Music love: Unkle - Lonely Soul

2010-04-05T14:19:00.002+02:00

I'm loving the "Disco project" from Youtube.

This my newest find: Unkle - Lonely Soul

Enjoy!

Making a new website

2010-04-04T13:43:00.003+02:00

For the dancegroup that I teach we're in the progress of making a new website.
I would really love to get some feedback about it so here is the link.

It's not finished yet, I still have to put up our logo and the translations of the pages still have to be done so you wont understand anything since it is in Dutch. But what do you think about the layout? Is it to sober? Does it reflect that we are an Irish dance group?

Already a big thanks for your efforts!

Bedroom organizer

2010-04-04T13:20:00.006+02:00

My handbag is always a terrible mess. It's really embaressing when you're in a store and have to pay and cannot find your wallet - or sometimes money that you put in loose - and have to turn your whole bag inside out.
I thought I found a solution with the bag organizer.
So a couple of months ago I made myself this organizer. I took this pictures rigt after I made it (no my camera still isnt fixed).

I used it a couple of days but it just wasn't right for me. Since then it's been waiting in my to do pile.
Yesterday I had the great idea to use it in the bedroom. We have a radiator in our bedroom, it's attached to the wall with to metal pieces. So I measured the disstance between the metal hooks, took that measurement to sew on two ribbons to organizer. I tied the ribbons to the hooks and tada I got an organizer for our bedroom.
I can put in a small book, a handkerchief, my mobile phone, ...
And wauw was that simple:)... To bad I still don't have a solution for my handbag.

And this is what I send

2010-04-03T20:38:00.002+02:00

swap from fii, originally uploaded by GaMa.d7.

This was my package for Gama.

I made her two broches (the two little circles) and the necklace.
To make the necklace I used this tutorial that I found over at 'ruffles and stuff'. But instead of glueing, I sewed the doillie on to the necklace. I did use some fabric glue to keep the doillie folded over.

Private swap with gama

2010-04-03T20:33:00.002+02:00

private swap with fii, originally uploaded by GaMa.d7.

Not so long ago I did my first private swap and it turned out great.
This was the package I received from her, I was so happy opening that envelop and taking everything out.

For music lovers

2010-04-03T20:19:00.001+02:00

I just found out about a great option in Youtube. Go to Youtube Disco and give in an artist that you like. Youtube ill then give you a list of artist that make simmilar music. I just discoverd 'Crystal Castles', 'Planningtorock', 'Zeigeist' 'Soap & Skin' and 'Lykke Li' this way.

This song of 'Lykke Li' makes me very happy...

Cross-culture Email Connection swap

2010-04-02T00:04:00.000+02:00

I joined a really great swap: Cross-culture Email Connection swap.

This swap is an interesting experiment. Only one person of each country could participate, I participated for Belgium.
You get a bunch of questions about your country and culture, it is so interesting to hear all this answers.

So here are my answers...

* A description of what you eat for breakfast

I'm not a breakfast kinda person. Normally when I get up I take some water to drink and I wait an hour or two before I have something real to eat. When I have the time I like to make some squeezed orange juice. Several times a week I bake an egg (I have two chicken so the eggs are piling up if we dont do that). With the egg I would eat a couple of slices bread, which is mostly homemade.
If I dont eat bread, I would mix some muesli, soy yoghurt and fruit.

* A short description of a typical work day

I'm a student and I only have classes once a week. Twice a week I go cleaning in a bar and I teach danceclasses also twice a week. So I dont really have a 'typical' workday.

* A description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday)

It has been five years that I have been teaching a danceclass on saturday morning. This means that I can never go out on friday and have to go to bed early. Then saturday Im really exhausted from dancing so I dont want to come out of my couch, this means that I almost never go out in the weekends.
So my favorite day off is when its vacation and I dont have to teach danceclass on saturday. That means I have an entire weekend for myself and I can do what I want on friday.

* A short description of your country and its position in the world, including something you like about it and something you don't like

My country is Belgium. We are a very small country best know for this things:

the atomium

'Manneke Pis'

chocolate

and french fries.

We are a country of opposites and a lot of he time it feels like we are made up by Kafka. Even though we are so small we have to big parts in our country, a flemish one and a french one, with in the center Brussels which is a bilangual part. Then there is also a little part of Belgium that speaks German.
This diversity is what I love in this country. I also like the fact that you can do your thing, people are a bit reserved so they will leave you alone. This also makes that when somebody is being open you know it is for real and that there really is a connection between you.

The thing that freaks me out is our political system. We have a really complicated system in which all of the three languages take part in. A lot of flemish politicians
want a separation between the french and the flemisch part of the country. Well thats a really simple explanation, in fact things are a lot more complicated but as a belgian myself I dont even undrestand all this things.

* a list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country

Like I said earlier we have 3 languages in our country: dutch, french and german. The people who speak dutch also get a lot of french courses in school and also some lessons in german. So I speak pretty fluent french, though german isnt my cup of tea.
There are a lot of different dialects in the flemish part of Belgium, some are really hard to understand.
In The Netherlands they also speak Dutch but for them it is pretty hard to understand us, while we don't really have a problem with understanding them.

* a description of the most common ethnic minorities in your country and how they are viewed

The most visable ethnic minority in my country would be the 'Muslims'. In the big cities there's a concentration of people from Northern-Africa and Turkey. In the politics there are a lot of big words about 'them' not integrating. There is a political party calles 'Vlaams Belang' (the flemisch merit). They are a right winged party that had a slogan that would translate like 'go home'. They are one of the biggest parties in Blegium but they are being kept out of the government. So a lot of people are afraid of this 'strangers'.

* a famous person from your country and what she/he is famous for

Belgium has a lot of famous artist, I'll just name a few:

- Axelle Red ; she is a wonderfull singer and famous throughout Europe
- Rene Magritte ; the surrealistic painter of 'ceci n'est pas une pipe'.
- Somebody of more popular culture... Jean-Claude Van Damme ; or better known than the 'muscles from Brussels'.
* the role of religion in your country

Wauw this was a long post, hope you found this interesting. If you have any more questions let me know and will happily answer you.

Finished business

2010-04-01T19:15:00.002+02:00

My camera is still broken...grrr. I have the ticket of the warranty but my mom bought it in a store thats so far away for me so it willl take another while before I get there.

The reason why I'm whining about my camera is that I cant show you what I've done lately.

Yesterday I started making fabric envelopes to start using the 'envelop system'. The envelope system is a way of budgetting. I'm trying to save money for this summer because we already have a big vacation planned.
I used this tutorial that I found on twelve22.

I had one problem, I couldnt find my zipperfoot but I stitched in the zipper with my regular foot without breaking my needle so yeah:)

Then I made this great organiser. The idea for the project came from 'blah to tada'.
It was so easy and quick to make. I used vintage wallpaper to cover the cardboard and put in the first box an empty roll of toiletpaper where I can put all my pens in.

I have one more thing on my to-do list for today... refashioning a dress thats already way to long in my pile.
Hope I can show you îctures of it all soon.

6 Degrees of Blogging - sharing blog love

2010-03-30T03:17:00.004+02:00

I discovered 6 Degrees of Blogging at Nelliebugs.

The rules are very simple, you start at your own blog and click on a link to another blog. From there you click on another link and so on.
On the blog where you arrived, you eave a comment saying "Hey! Found you through six degrees of blogging. Your are featured on my blog! (Leave your blog URL so they can find you.)
After that you write a quick piece on your blog about the degrees of blogging and encourage everybody else to do the same...

So this are my six degrees:

1. Things & things

2. The muse factory

3. For the love of creativity

4. Plum rose lane

5. A beautifull mess

and last but not least...

6. Dainty squid

I'm so happy that I found this blog. I love her style, pictures and the way she writes. So go and spread some blog love.

Favorite Songs Swap

2010-03-07T19:23:00.002+01:00

I participed on swap-bot in this great swap called "Our Favorite Songs #2".
We had to send a least 5 of our favorite songs to 20 other swappers. When I saw this swap I didnt hestitate a second to sign up. I love to share my music and I love the idea of getting music from 20 other persons (and maybe discovering some of my futures favorite songs).

And since I already made the list I thought I'd also share it on my blog!
The songs are in no particular order, they're actually all number ones:)

1. I'm starting with some Belgian pride, voted to best belgian song of the decade.

Absynthe Minded - My Heroics, Part One

2. This song isnt easy to listen to but I love it. No particular reason for it, it's just the sound of the song.

If I Had a Heart - Fever Ray (Fuck Buttons Remix)

3. This is one of the most beautifull love songs and I love the combination of their voices.

pj harvey & thom yorke 'this mess we're in'

4. Tegan and Sara had a big hit in Belgium last summer. I like their style and voices and at the moment this is my favorite song of them.

Tegan and Sara- Here I am

5. This is just a song that really makes me happy:) It's a George Michael cover but I like this way better then the original.

The Gossip - Careless Whisper

6. Some more belgian pride...

Hard Times - The Scabs

7. I normally go out to psytrance parties. So there had to be 1 psytrance number in my list:). This isnt the best one, it's quite commercial, but I have the best memories about it.

The Muses Rapt - Spiritual healing

8. I love everything this goup has made but since this is the first song I ever heard of them (and it made a big impression) its my most favourite.

Karate - Water

9. This isnt easy listening music, please sit trough the whole song before making an opinion. They are so great and put so much feeling in their songs. When I went to a show of them I literally had to cry because it was so beautifull!

Explosions in the sky - First breath after coma

10. The last song are actually two. I wanted to share the original song and the cover because they're both so good and really different. Its the same song, same lyrics and i love both songs, but cant decide which one is the best because they mean such diferent things

this is the original: Nine Inch Nails - Hurt

this is the cover: Johnny Cash - Hurt

Broken camera

2010-03-04T15:05:00.002+01:00

How ironic... as I'm planning to make a cozy for my camera it breaks. So no pictures of the granny-square-slippers or the cushions I made for my new sofa.

So I'll just have to share two great tutorials I found online for how to make reusable snack bags.
Fisrt one is really simple to make. Since I don't know where to find PUL, I lined the bags with regular plastic sandwich bags. I'm using mine now once or twice a week for a couple of months and it still looks great. And it makes me feel good because I saved so much sandwich bags!

I haven't tried the second tutorial yet, but it looks great and maybe it's something that I will put on my to do list once the other isn't good anymore.

Finished and a new to do

2010-03-02T01:16:00.007+01:00

Yeah, I finished the granny-square-slippers. I'm a day to late but I did it even though today I was thinking about not finishing them 'cause I didnt really like the way they turned out. I'll be posting some pictures of them tomorrow, my boyfriend has them on his feet right now and he doesn't want to play a model.

And so it's time for another to-do and I've decided that this week I'm making a pouch for my camera. My mom gave me a camera for my birthday (which was in september) and since then I've put it in socks and right now it's just laying around naked in my bag.
I've found some good tutorials but am not quite sure yet which one I'm going to make.

This fisrt one is a iPod/Camera Cozy found on 'Sew, mama, sew'

This next one is quite similar, the main differance is the closure. I found i it at iwhip.iwok.icraft.

This cozy camera case is made by amy a la mode and I love the fabric she has used.

So what do you think, which cozy will be the best, or the most handy. Or do you know of some other good tutorials for making a camera cozy? Looking forward to hearing from you.

Somebody else's thrifting finds

2010-02-28T10:44:00.002+01:00

I have an amazing story to share with you about somebody else's trifting finds.
This weekend there was an article in the belgian paper about a Herr Seele's, flemish celebrety, thriftstore find. Herr Seele is an artist and also a piano seller and collector.
In the thriftstore he found a very rare piano for only 50 euro. It's a piano build by Ignace Pleyel and made in the 30's and there are only a few piano's of left.
Herr Seele was looking for a piano like this for years on the international market so it's amazing that he found it in the thriftstore in his own town. If you would like the article you can find it here, but it's written in dutch.

Herr Seele is also an interesting artist, he has a comic called 'Cowboy Henk', wich is totally worth it to check out.

Making progress and some introductions

2010-02-26T21:11:00.005+01:00

Remember my weekly to do list? I would like to explain why I think this could help in my battle with procrastination.
I think setting up one weekly thing to do, that isnt to big or difficult, will definitely help me to end that task... because finishing things is the hardest part for me. I have tons of other unfinished projects like a top, socks, two refashioned sweaters, a doillie, a cape and these are just the things that first come up in my mind.
The reason why I'm willing to post a to do every week on my blog is to have some kind of pressure to finish. Now let's see if this works for me:) (and if you notice I'm slacking with my project let me know!)

So for my progress with the granny-square-slippers. I've finished 10 of the 12 squares and one slipper is almost constructed. However I've noticed that they are way to big for me but they are ok for my boyfriend. He doesnt like them very much because I've used purple (and he thinks its not a very masculin colour) but he says he will wear them. So I have no reason not to finish them... I guess tomorrow I will have all of the squares finished and by sunday they have to be put together.

Now speaking of my boyfriend I wanted to introduce him and share a lovely picture. Here is using my sewing machine for the very first time. I've learned him how to sew his own seams. Huray for my independant boyfriend.

And I wanted to introduce one more important being in my life... my cat. She's old, a little bit overweight, sometimes grumpy but she is the queen of the house.

More giveaways

2010-02-24T16:29:00.003+01:00

I found 3 more giveaways which are stunning and I wanted to share with you...

brynwoodneedleworks.blogspot.com

frenchcharming.blogspot.com

mydesertcottage.blogspot.com

Robin's Egg Blues : Celebration Giveaway

2010-02-24T01:34:00.000+01:00

Spread the word... Robin's Egg Blues has a fantastic giveaway. You still have time till 28 februari to enter the giveaway.

Evernote - my way of conquering chaos

2010-02-24T01:28:00.001+01:00

I'm a very chaotic person. There are loads and loads of project, tutorials, ... on my computer and I dont even know of their existence. Everytime I saw something that I liked or also wanted to make or inspired me, I took a screenshot or submitted the page to my bookmarks. Once in I while I tried to organize it all and I ended up with several maps called knitting, sewing, to do, tutorial, ... and in all of those I have doubles.

If you recognize yourself in this you also can be helped by using Evernote. I'm not paid by them or anything I just love this program. It's cheap, simple and very easy to use. And most of all I use it all the time.

Go and check it out at www.evernote.com

Granny-square-slippers: this weeks to do

2010-02-23T21:59:00.001+01:00

Im going to start to post every week a to do. Im a procastrinator and I think this will help me to make all the wonderfull projects that I have gathered in my 'Evernote' (more on Evernote in my next post).

So my project for this week is crocheting 'granny-square-slippers', a project that I found at the purl bee blog.

Dancing queen

2010-02-16T00:00:00.000+01:00

I like to think of myself as a dancing queen. I love dancing and spend a lot of time on it. Once a week my boyfriend an I take tango lessons and we practise some more at home. I really like tango cuase its nice to dance with my boyfriend but my heart is with Irish dancing. It started out kinda because I had to from my mom but now I never want to stop doing it.
I give three lessons a week and on wednesday I sit on the train for over an hour to go dancing with an other group. Since I'm planning to take the TCRG exam in a couple of years Im really stepping up my game and dancing is becoming a dailly routine. (for those of you who dont understand the TCRG thing it just means im becoming a registrated teacher. For this I have to take a big, expensive exam for wich Im already scared D: )

So now Im going to show you some pictures of the last performance of some of my pupils. We we're only with 5 but for 2 of them it was there first show. And I have to say Im so proud of them cause they did a really good job!!

And even more fabrics

2010-02-15T23:57:00.001+01:00

This is the last post about fabrics that I bought on the fabric fair, I swear:)
I dont know yet what to do with this fabrics, if anobody has good ideas let me know. The fabric on the left is kinda stretchy, the one on the right is cotton.
Im normally not a big fan of flowers but I can already imaging myself wearing this in the summer.

Summer's coming

2010-02-15T21:59:00.001+01:00

Summer's coming or thats what I was hoping yesterday at the fabric fair. Normally I'm not a big fan of black and whites but for some reason I loved these fabrics. I didnt bought them to match but seeing them together they certainly do.

I have some plans for them, they're going to become a blouse, 2 dresses and a top but dont have all the patterns yet except for one.

I like the print of all the fabrics but i Love the small anchors. For that fabric I already have the pattern. You can find it at 'Weekend designer'

Purple

2010-02-15T16:29:00.002+01:00

This is some of the fabric I bought yesterday.
I love the colour, in real life its deeper purple. And best thing is, I already know what Im gonna make out of it.

http://wkdesigner.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/wrap-yourself-in-art/

Fabric love

2010-02-15T12:26:00.002+01:00

Twice a year there's a big fabric fair in my town called "Stoffenspektakel". It's a large hall filled with boots where they sell a big variety of fabrics. There are also some booths where you can buy tread, needles, ribbon, ...
So yesterday they were in town and I nearly spend 3 houres in fabric heaven:)
Coming up are the pictures of fabric I bought and what I'm planning to do with them.

Baking fail

2010-02-15T12:12:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I wanted to be creative in the kitchen and I tried to make bodding (flemish breadpudding) with coco milk instead of regular or soy milk. As you can see it didnt work out as I planned...
It was more a blob then something firm but I have to be honest it still was yummie. So instead of eating a slice, we scooped some of the blob in a bowl and ate it with a spoon.

yummie 'suprise' brownies recipe

2010-02-11T16:17:00.002+01:00

I made this yesterday evening and they were so good I didnt even had the time to take a picture cause they're already all finished. What the suprise is you ask me? Well ... I'll tell you after giving the recipe.

Recipe:
* 2 cups of flour
* 1,5 cups of cane sugar
* 1cup of water
* 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
* 3/4 cup of soy yoghurt
* 1/2 cup of cocoa
* 1 bag of vanilla sugar
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* chopped pieces of black chocolat
* some chopped nuts - I used walnuts (these are optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a bakingmould. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, vanilla sugar and cane sugar.
Add oil, water and yoghurt to flour mixture. Add the chocolate and nuts, stir untill you have an even mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the brownies comes out clean.

Now for the suprise... this is a vegan recipe. I'm not vegan but I didnt had any eggs in the house but I was craving for something 'chocolate-cake-thing' so I decided to try something vegan. And I loved it - as did my boyfriend and my housemates - and I didnt notice a bit that it was vegan.

Thriftstore finds

2010-02-11T15:59:00.001+01:00

Yes I'm a thrifter. And I find a lot of things in thriftstore, actually I find so much in thriftstores that I almost don't have the need to go to other stores anymore.
So from time to time I will be bragging with my fabulous finds:)

This is some great cookwear that I found. I love it's colour and the flowers. When I saw it went immediatly in my shoppingbasket and since then we already used it a lot. We use it for everything, even for baking bread in the oven.

These are some random sewing stuff that I found in the thriftstore. All together they have cost me 3 euro. In the bag with all the spools there were even 5 spools of silk thread - wan you imagen how happy I was while going trough that bag.

My first post

2010-02-11T15:45:00.000+01:00

Yeah finally I made it to post on my blog.
From now on I will be posting reguarly. What can you expect, I hear you ask? Well I have some tutorials waiting to be put online, pictures of refashions, yummy recipes and much, much more ...