Sunday, January 29, 2012

Sunday Recap #4

This week wasn't really eventful...
- Tuesday we had a study day at work. I spend the morning being absolutely annoyed, because I found out the "teachers" hadn't made any progress with teaching my colleagues AT ALL in the last half year...
I wasn't the only one who was annoyed, a lot of my colleagues thought the whole morning was one big waste of (very precious) time...
The afternoon was reserved for filling out reportcards, and since my duo and I didn't have to fill them out, we had a lot of time to organize other stuff.
(My duo did spend some time reading reportcards, since we do have to do the parent-teachertalks....)

- I had a really fun conversation with someone from HiPP's distributor. They sent me a big box of organic babyfood for a project I'm working on... I was almost literally jumping up and down when I opened the box...!

- I read about 60 pages in "Groen Doen" and was inspired to do some research of my own.
I'm bloghopping organic and ecological weblogs, which is an interesting experience. I discovered loads of handy things, but I also scratch myself behind the ears at some of the things I read...
Making your own toothpaste? Using reuseable ladypads for monthly hygene? Not really my cup of tea... But a showercoach and a standby-killer are more up my alley...
I also discovered lots of sites which seem interesting, but need some more looking at, before I "promote" them here..
Two I am already a big fan of are: BabyBeGood and EcoMama...

- Joshua started seriously rolling on to his side!

- I made a cute card for someone who needed a little support... You know who you are!

- I made hubby some birthday breakfast... :D

- I figured out I need a different strategy for my Sunday Recaps...
Up until now (including this post), I write my SR's on Sunday.
But a lot of the stuff that seems interesting during the week, has been forgotten on Sunday...
So coming week, I'm going to make small notes, which can easily be uploaded on Sunday. I hope this works a bit better...

So this is it for this week...

Love,

Caroline


ThriftStore Finds

As I mentioned a while ago, I stille have some thriftstore finds to show...
I'm always complaining to Rebekka how I'm jealous of her finds and how I can never find anything good at the thriftstore in Almere.
But Harderwijk, where my mom lives, also has a thriftstore.
It's not as big as the one in Almere, but it's soooooo much cooler. Here everything donated ends up in the store and doesn't get sold to merchants (don't know if this is the right translation, but you probably get the idea).

But on to my finds!
I bought three vintage (?) Heineken glasses Andries didn't have, and a lot of childrens clothes. And that's where I got my gems! ! !

The had a really big table with a huge pile of summer clothes, 35cts (eurocents) a piece. It didn't look like much, but when I started rummaging around, I discovered lots of clothes with the pricetags still on them... Really expensive brandclothes, with the pricetags still on them ! ! !

I took pictures of what I bought for Joshua, but I also bought a big pile of girlsclothes, since Rebekka is having a girl... I think I got her about 15 -20 (is that right Rebekka?) items...

This is what I got Joshua:

A pair of Brubaker shoes with the tags still on.














A pair of Oilily socks and Oilily pants (With the arrows, storeprice €54,- (!!!!)), a summercoat in a horrible colour but extra is always good, and a summer short and summershorts (still waaaaaay to big, but who cares at 35cts?) Everything in this picture had the tags still on.


















These items didn't have the tags on anymore, and some of them weren't new, but I don't care, I really like them!
A sleeveless animal shirt from H&M, a striped Mexx shirt, a longsleeve with cars on them and a big city traffic Shirt (which looked like it's new).

I didn't take any pictures of the pile I got Rebekka... Sorry...
But a few of the items I bought, included:
- Villa Happ knitted vest
- Hema summerdress
- striped H&M longsleeveshirt
- Feetje dress with hearts
- shirt with tiny orange stars (don't remember the brand)
- loads more, but I can't really remember...

Sunday Recap later today...

Love,
Caroline

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sunday Recap #3

This week:
- My monday at work was a very pleasant surprise...
My new duopartner prepped everything for me, so I could really easily start the week with my our kids. There was a nice list of important stuff, the craftsupplies were ready and she switched names on the tasklist for me...

- My new boots arrived. I was a little bit weary about the size, but they're okay. I do have blisters after wearing them for one whole day. The kids at school really liked them too.

- I made arrangements with Andries' parents, for them to babysit Joshua every monday. They offered a few times and I didn't think they were really serious but they were.
I'm soooo grateful that they want to do this, which means Joshua gets to grow up and spend loooots of time with his grandparents.
Now to figure out a way for my mom to spend more time with our little guy, but that shouldn't be a big problem...

- I didn't read any books, too busy with other stuff...

- Rebekka and Sietse came over for a visit. Sietse playes with Joshua's Fisher Price garage and house. And Rebekka and I talked about lots of things...

- I recieved an e-mail from the lady who sold me the bathseat last week. Her husband gave it away, so the returned me my money.
I searched for another one on Marktplaats and I found lots, placed a bid on a bathseat with more play options and the next day I recieved an e-mail that I could buy this one.
I payed immediately and this seat was sent to us.
The day it came in the mail, I put Joshua in the bathtub in his new seat and he loved it!

- We went shopping for some babysupplies to leave at Andries' parents. A bottle, a pacifier (I <3 oma), a bib (I <3 opa), daipers, a bottle of organic juice (diksap), some organic fruitpurees and some milkpowderjars.

- We did some more work on the bathroom. Still a WIP, so no pictures...

- We removed 6 of the glass shelves that were in our hallway and had our Citroën modelcars on it. I'm in the process of photographing them, so I can put them on Marktplaats.
We're just done with them...

- My mom was admitted to the hospital. She hadn't been able to eat a normal meal in about three weeks and kept throwing up or at least feel nauseous. She had a lot of pain in her stomach.
To make a long story short: they removed het gall-bladder this Friday. It was inflamed and full of galstones.
She was released today, and has to take it veeeery easy. But the pain is gone and she can eat again, albeit small portions...

- This afternoon Andries' parents came to pick up Joshua (they were in Almere, so it saved us a drive to Putten) and now it's just the two of us at home...
It's kind of strange, no evening bottle, no bedtime songs, no watching him sleep... Just quiet....
Andries has already phoned his parents to hear if the little man is settled in....

So, that was my week...
How was yours?

Love,
Caroline

PS I also had a conversation with someone over the phone, which I'm absolutely ecstatic about, but I can't give any details about...! You have NO IDEA how hard it is to keep my mouth shut... ! ! !

Monday, January 16, 2012

Sunday Recap #2 (on Monday)

Sorry for the delay, been sick...

This week:

- I started working again. Before the holidays, I already worked a few half days, but last Monday was my first whole workday since I went on leave in July.
I was fun, but I really need to get the hang of it again. I constantly have to look up what we're going to do at what time, which kid has which picto...
But I'm learning fast...!

- I picked up the stomach-flu at work... Nice... I got really sick Thursdaymorning and started feeling a bit more human this morning... I'm still super tired...

- I went to the doctor with the little man. His the skin on his head is really dry and red. I has been for quite some time, but he keeps scratching, so it must itch badly.
The doc said it's atopic eczema. Possibly caused by an allergy. It could be lactose intolarance, so we're changing his formula. No more standard1, but Hypo-Allergenic for two weeks. If the eczema improves, it's probably lactose intolerance.
Joshua is also getting a really greasy cream to help with the itching.

- I read another 40 pages in "Groen Doen".

- I ordered a pair of boots from Shoeline.nl

- Bought a really cool bathseat for Joshua on Marktplaats. I LOVE secondhand stuff... why pay full-price for stuff you only use for a couple of months. And besides, secondhand is a lot more environmentally friendly... If I buy something that's been used, it doesn't have to be made new...

- I didn't do any crafting, I felt too sick...

I hope this week things will be better, so I can do a more interesting Sunday Recap next week

Love,

Caroline

PS I still have to show you my ThriftStore finds from a couple of weeks ago. I scored LOADS of cool stuff at the ThriftStore in Harderwijk!

Some pictures of this week:

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Sunday Recap #1

Starting today, I'm posting a recap of my week, every Sunday afternoon or evening... So here goes:
This week:

- I read about 50 pages in "Groen doen" by Marie-Claire van den Berg. I was amazed of how ingnorant and easily-fooled (most/some) people are when it comes to the environment (myself included on some parts). It's really easy to read and made me laugh on more than one occasion.

- Andries bought Joshua his first Lego. He also assembled it... LOL

- We started re-organizing our bathroom, but it's still a WIP, so no pictures yet.

- I went to "work". This week was the last week of the two week X-masbreak, so the kids were still at home. This gave me and my new duo-partner a chance to discuss how we are going to run our group.

- We ate pancakes at my colleague's place. Hubby helped her hubby with a DIY-job that wasn't really a one-man job...

- I got the "slofjes" Rebekka (the above-mentioned colleague) sewed for Joshua.

- My fabric from Spoonflower arrived on Saturday.

- We tried the Tripp-Trapp, but it's still a bit big...

- I sewed a seatcushion for Joshua's Tripp-Trapp. I still need to make a padded seatcover. (I also fixed hubby's shirt, pant-pocket and Joshua's Fant (elephant))

- I crocheted about 4 rows on my ripple-blanket and started on an Owl-beanie for hubby...

Ofcourse I did loads more, but these are the most "interesting things"...
Tomorrow is my first "real" workday since I've been on leave... Also the first day our babysitter is coming over to watch Joshua for the whole day... I'm a bit anxious...

Love,
Caroline

Some pictures of this week:




Saturday, January 7, 2012

Look at what the mailman brought today...



















The fabric I ordered at Spoonflower on December 21st.

A yard of this beautiful organic knit fabric, with the baby seas print.
This was kind of a test-order, to see how long it would take to get here.
It was the first time (ever) I ordered something outside of Holland and I'm very happy!
I will definately be ordering more fabrics from Spoonflower! I've seen sooooooo many gorgeous prints...
Sunday recap tomorrow!

Love,
Caroline

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Owlbeanie with earflaps...

I found this really cool hat on Pinterest and was instantly in love...!
But cheap as I am, I didn't want to buy the pattern (I was also afraid I wouldn't understand one bit of it...). Since you can find just about anything on Google and Youtube, I began my search...

Pretty soon I found this Youtube-video, which shows step-by-step, how to crochet an owl-hat.
So I started...!

I found out it's actually pretty easy to crochet a beanie. Once you get the idea, you can make it any size you want!
Next the earflaps were up. I didn't like the earflaps in the video, they were to straight and "sharp-edged" for my liking.
I played around with some decreases until I liked the shape.

Joshua happily modeled his new hat for me... And for everybody on FaceBook and Twitter... LOL...

I crocheted a yellow edge around the hat and added the eyes.
I also didn't like the embroidered beak, so I crocheted a small heart, altered one or two stiches and voila, a crocheted beak...
Last, but not least, I added two big breads to the earflaps and some tassels on the top and Joshua's Owl-beanie was done...!


And by the looks of it, he really likes it...!

Love, Caroline

PS I started another one... Daddy wants one to match...!

Positioning problems...

I can't seem to get the pictures for my Owl-hat-post in the right position, so no update tonight... Unless there is someone who can help me solve my photo-positioning problem quickly...

Sorry...

Love, Caroline

EDIT: I solved the problem for now.... not the way I wanted, but it'll do for now...

New Year


I don't do new years resolutions...

I do have some resolutions though... I've been walking around with them for a while now...

1. Starting next Monday (not tomorrow, but when school starts again), I'm banning all things chocolate from my diet again... I really want to get rid of the last pregnancy weight and cold turkey is the best way to quit for me...!
2. I reaaaaally want to be more active blogging... So starting next Sunday, I'm tying to post a recap of my week, every Sunday... Ofcourse I'll try to blog more than once a week, but the Sunday-recap seems like a good start.

Do you have any (new years) resolutions?

Love, Caroline

(PS: Maybe I'm posting the Owlbeanie I created for Joshua later today... So check again tonight...!)