5th December

I just don't get anywhere near my craft projects...no time or am I just lazy? A bit lazy I guess. I woke up at 7.30 am this morning to let the dog out. It was pouring cats and dogs, I am really tired of all this rain. How much water do we actually get this autumn??? Anyway, I just went in my dressing gown outside to stand in the rain and wait till Felix found the right place to lift up his pow. Because not every tree or pole is suitable for lifting his pow at, you know my dears. And then after comming back to my cosy warm bedroom I made a huge mistake and decided to lay down for just a couple of minutes. Right, you get the idea...next time I opened my eyes it was already 10 am...and still raining. So half of the day has passed.

The only decent thing you can do when it's raining outside is ... COOK! At my local supermarket you can find great dels on Saturdays. So what I often do is go there on Saturday and get as much as I canin promotion. They have vegetables sliced and packed on a very interesting price. My problem is that if you have to buy all the ingredients let's say for a soup, it's too much for one person. But when I buy it pre-packed it's just enough for 2-3 meals for me. So today I got some soup mixes - one for marrow soup and the other one for parsley soup. As they were in promotion, it means they had to be cooked the same day. So I have made 2 pots of soup and I am going to freeze one of them. This is also great for using in the week, when I have less time for cooking.

Marrow soup:

700 ml water

2 small green marrows

celery leaves

1 onion

1 handful of spinache

5-6 leaves of fresh mint

2 cloves of garlic

salt, pepper and spices

Just let the water boil, add all the vegetables and cook approx 20 minutes. Add salt and spices, blend it all and serve!

Суп с кабачком:

700 мл воды

2 маленьких цуккини

листва сельдерея

1 луковица

горсть свежих листьев шпината (или 1 кубик замороженного шпината)

5-6 листочков свежей мяты

2 дольки чеснока

соль, перец, специи по-вкусу

Овощи порезать кубиками, шпинат добавлить цельными листьями. Дать воде закипеть, добавить овощи и варить до готовности примерно 20 мин. Добавить соль и специи. Все перемешать в блендере и подавать горячим.

Parsley soup:

600 ml water

1 leek

1 onion

1 turnip

celery leaves

parsley 100 gr

Just let the water boil, add all the vegetables except for parsley, cook for about 20 minutes, add parsley at the very end, some salt and spices and blend it. It's ready!!!

Суп с петрушкой:

600 мл воды

1 лук-порей

1 луковица

1 репа

листва сельдерея

100 гр петрушки

Овощи порезать, дать закипеть воде.В соленую воду положить все овощи кроме петрушки, поварить примерно 20 мин. Под конец добавить порезанную петрушку и специи. Все смешать в блендере, подавать горячим.

I have also put the red bans into cold water to let them soak over the night as toorrow I am going to make quite an old-fashioned bean soup with pig's tails and hoof for my friend. He is not an Orthodox so he doesn't have Lent at the moment. It is heavy stuff but very tasty and quite healthy btw...

Last but not least as promised a couple of pictures of my Christmas preparations:

My birdies again as you can see... The very first Christmas card this year fron my mom... A bit too early but nowadays you never know how long will it take till something you post gets to its destination.

Birdies again, some napkins and chair cushions from Ikea. You remember, I am going red and white this Christmas.

This wounderfull emroidery I got from my friend. Her mother made this emroidery for a Christmas card. I've liked it so much that I have decided to cut it out fom the card and put it into a frame so I can use it during the Christmas season.

Crocheted stars ad flowers to use as decoration for a Christmas tree or to give as a little present...

And the rest is for tomorrow my dears. Have a very nice and cosy evening!!!

4th December

Have been to Ikea today. Now I am dead dead dead. I have bought some things for Christmas and I have already packed them out and arranged nicely all over the house. So cosy!!!

I will post some pictures tomorrow - that's a promise. As for today - I am going to eat my fresh salad with shrimps and tomatoes and some french fries of course, it's Belgium, guys!! ...Drink a glass of whine and enjoy my Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I am kind of starting to like this film...childish but so very cute for this period of time. It's a nice way to fill up these grey and rainy days with some magic. See you tomorrow....xxx

3rd December

Lucky number 3. As you probably know cycling is quite popular in Belgium. Ialso try to go everywhere wih my bike - it's good for my health, I don't have any traffic problems and it's betr for the environment. You can see this kind of signs for bicycle routes all over the city.

For those of you who love cooking I have picked these three ideas for three different recipes. If you like to get one of themplease leave a comment and I will write them in one of my following posts. For each recipe you have 3 possible vaiations!

Have a nice day and till tomorrow!

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PS I have my very first follower Kimbles at Home!!! This is so great. Thank you for your lovely comment btw.

2 December

If you live near Antwerp, you will recognize this sign - going from the Ring 2 to Gent or Brugge or the seashore. This picture was taken in Berchem, when I was cycling back from the Christmas Fare in the Antwerp Expo.
As you can see it was bad bad bad and grey rainy weather again but anyway... If you want to feel more cosy I have another number 2 for you:







This looks more homely and welcoming I guess.


Here are a couple of birdies I have made using the tutorial from this amasing blog:




These birds are presents for my neighbours and friends. I only keep birdies in white and red for myself. Don't worry my neighbours don't rea my blog so little chance that they will figure out what thir little presents are this year.

I am using some rest of Zeeman acryllic yarn and jingle bells from last year.

I am planning a traditional Red and White Christmas with a tint of Scandinavian style.

Well, this is it fir today, have to return to my studies.

Have a very nice evening and till tomoroww with new numbers!

December countdown -1

I have always enjoyed this last month of every year at the bloggers' land! There are a lot of you who start with this final countdown and post beautiful pictures with numbers. Well, I want to join the fun this year, but the point is that it is not that easy to find numbers and make nice pictures at the same time. I am not disencouraged yet, I still want to go through it, but I am afraid that my photography won't be such inspiring...

I also don't have any luck with light this time of the year. It is raining already 3 weeks in a row, there is no sun and taking pictures inside is a coplete disaster! I have little light sources in my appartement, s my pictures are always turning out too dark and out of focus if I have to take them indoors. But I will try anyway ;-)

As some of you already know the 28th of November has started the Christma Lent for the Orthodox Russians. It means we do not eat from now on and till 6th of December any anymal food, like meat, cheese or milk. This is why I have to look for new recipes to make my menu a bit more variated. Today I have made a celery soup with potatoes.

Its recipe comes from the last year's edition of AllerHande - it's a free magazine from Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn.

The recipe is very easy - you just have to cut you celery root in smaal blocks together with 250 gr of potatoes, one onion and two garlic cloves. Then you fry it during 3-4 minutes in 2 ts of olive oil, add water or boullion, salt and herbs and let it all cook for another 20 min. Then you pour your soup in the bender, mix it all till the structure is smooth, cook it on a soft fire for another 10 min and it's ready. You can serve it with rye bread and some ham. Very very easy-peasy and healthy as you can see.

As my mom follows this blog but doesn't speak English quite well, I will post translations of the recipes for her.

Суп-пюре из сельдерея с картошкой:

1 корень сельдерея

250 гр рассыпчатой картошки

1 луковица

2 головки чеснока

2 ст л оливкого масла

бульон говяжий или овощной

Сельдерей помыть, нарезать ломтиками и очистить. Порезать на кубики. Картофель почистить и также нарезать кубиками. Лук и чснок мелко пошинковать, обжарить в масле, добавить порезанные сельдерей и картофель, попассировать еще 3-4 минуты. Добавить бульон, дать закипеть и варить на малом огне около 20 мин. Миксером сделать суп-пюре, поварить еще 10 мин и подавать горячим с кусочком ржаного хлеба (можно добавить немного порезаной ветчины или бекона для непостящихся).

Here you go. Enjoy your day and a nice meal.

Last autumn days

Nevertheless I do enjoy my free days. I go for a long walk with my dog in the park. He loves it! He is so active, he loves chasing the birds and making huge holes in the ground.

The park has changed a lot in the last couple of weeks... All the colours are gone... Winter is gaining power to take over. It is still warm enough but very dark and sober.

Just a little bit sunny accents in the leaves...

How is your crafting going on?I have made a couple of Christmas birds, still have to take pictures of them. But with these dark days I just don't manage to get enough light in my living room for a nice shoot. Will try again tomorrow.

You all have a nice creative evening and I will see you soon, as the December countdown will start tomorrow!!!

Sweet November

Have you ever seen this movie? It's a sad one, really. But don't think I am melancholic, not at all. I am still enjouying this last colours of 2009.

In a couple of weeks all the trees are going to loose their last laves, and then it will be a very sad, grey period till the first snow will fall. But it might take a while, especially in Belgium. It's not easy to see some real snow here.

By the way, have I mentioned that I am studying for nurse at th moment? It's a bachlor degree studies, which takes 3 full years. As I work, I can't enroll for as a day student, so I've chosen for a distance education. It is hard... a lot of material, too little time.

It's just a part of all the books and courses I have to go through, not to mention te study material which is posted online. Now you probably get the idea why I don't post that much at my blog at the moment.

Also I am starting with my little-tiny kitchen garden...just some herbs to start with.








I must agree that my terras garden looks a bit better.




Completely inspired by this gorgeous variation of clours I had to make this easy autumn napkin.

As usual the napkin itself comes from Dille en Kamille, and I ust crochet the edge in different colours. You can find lots of edging crochet pattern online.

I have to step by this shop to get more napkins for Christmas. I still hope I will have time to crochet a couple of edgings with all these studies and exams coming on!

Well, I guess I will move on to my books now. Have a nice week!

Autumn colours

I love autumn colours. They are so warm and bright at the same time.
As I am at home for 2 weeks due to a small car accident, I can afford myself to go to the park with my dog every day.

I couldn't resist to bring these wounderfull colours at home...

And by the way - what do you think about seasonal cooking. I've got this marvelous book for my birthday - Jamie At Home. I just love it!!! Not only for the recipes - which are easy to make, traditional and yet modern at the same time - but also for the beautiful pictures this book is full of. I am not too much into cooking books as they cost a fortune nowadays, but this one I am really glad to have in my collection.
Well, anyway what I wanted to show you is my pumpkin creation from that book. Just plain baked pumpkin with herbs and wild mushrooms I picked when I was in Russia on vacation.

Very tasty with some aked pork.

And to finish up for today some more autumn colurs inspiration for you...

Have a nice and cosy Sunday!

Autumn-Herbst-Herfst

It's quite a while since my last post here.
I am back from my wounderfull vacantion in Russia and Karelia. It was such a lovely experience, as you can see.
Felix travelled with me - that was his first flight and it all went so smoothly. I am so proud of him!
There are a lot of changes in my life since my last message. I don't want to make you too curious, but I think I will wait just a bit with telling you all the news. The only thing I can mention at the moment - I will move again probably in 2010.
I haven't been too productive lately on the craft field. No time, no time... and too tired in the evenings. My eyes are so tired that I can't see what I am knitting, which just can't result in anything good. But I miss my crafting, so I still try to knit 2-3 raws per evening.

October in Belgium is a rainy, dull month. It's so grey and depressing outside. I am trying to compensate it with nice and warm colours in my clothes and around the house. And you, what do you do to fight the grey autumn feeling?