Postal Persuits

^From Nele, Germany

^ From Yi-Chen, Taiwan

^ From Martina, Kroatia

^ From Martine, The Netherlands

^ From Sara, The Netherlands

^ From Robert, Canada

^ To Robert, Canada

^ To Martina, Croatia

^ To Sara, The Netherlands

^ To Vanesa, Canada

^ To Martine, The Netherlands

^ To Sohvi, Finland

^ To Cathrine, Norway

Cupcake parade

On the 9th of February my friend Sara and I went to a cupcake workshop in Apeldoorn. The cakes were already baked, and we were there to decorate them. They had fondant in all the colours of the rainbow and lots of stuff to edit the fondant with :) Voila; the result of 2,5 hours of hard work (and drinking tea, chattering and relishing)

And then it was winter

While I am writing this post I am also watching the latest version of Alice in Wonderland. Yes, the one with Johnny Depp as the mad hatter. It wasn't an easy choice you know, Alice had to fight up against Amelie. Better luck next time Miss Poulain :)

A few weeks ago it started freezing, first only at night but later also by day. I loved it! And luckely for me it finally began to snow as well *dance*

Boyfriend S. and I took a lovely walk in the freezing cold. We went to Castle Rosendael, which was mentioned for the first time in 1314! The pond by the castle was frozen and people of all ages were iceskating and sleigh riding. It made me think of this painting by Hendrick Avercamp.

^ The painting

^ My version

^ The castle

^ Surrounding trees

And when we came home our lovely little cat Saartje sat on the couch, waiting for us.

^ Miauw

Remington Riviera

Just when I thought it wasn't going to happen today, the doorbell rang. I opened the door and the postman handed me a rather heavy cardboard box. That could only mean one thing... *drum roll*

*yay*

I am really looking forward to writing letters on this device. Enjoy your weekend :)

A Russian Evening

Last night three of my colleagues came over for dinner. And because we have Siberian temperatures here (-12 degrees Celcius at night, -5 by day) I decided to cook them a Russian meal. The main dish was beef russian way, with bacon, salami, carrot, celery, onion, red wine and mashed potatoes. Jummy!

For dessert I made 'blini smetana', or pancakes with whipped cream, quark and sugar. Put it in the oven for 15 minutes and this is what you get:

^ Mmmmm....

And when you're serving a Russian dinner, you just have to make a photo the old Russian way with this:

And when you do that, you get this:

^My great colleagues!

Now I need to find the courage to do the dishes that is piled up in the kitchen...

She & Him

I must confess, I just love pretty much everything about Zooey Deschanel... Boyfriend and I just saw the first ten episodes of her series 'New Girl' (in only two days). And I can't wait for more to come. This Tuesday the next one is on... And at the moment I am listening to music from She & Him. She is (you never would have guessed it) Zooey and Him is M. Ward. They make very nice quiet music, which makes me think about Hawaii (don't know why) and country music. Love it!

The train station of Arnhem has been renovated (read: rebuild) and besides a Starbucks kiosk it now has a Paperchase store. How cool is that! I didn't know about its existence before, but I'm not sure if I can live without it now. They have so much nice stuff, with great prints. It is like snailmail heaven! And they also sell the cutest photo albums :)

And about snailmail: I have found myself a typewriter. I don't have it yet, but it is orange and it looks like this one. Can't wait for it to arrive!

About green soup and pink pie

Time flies when you're busy (or keeping yourself busy for that matter). It has already been almost a month since the christmas holidays! During those lovely days boyfriend S. and I occupied ourselfs, besides the general things one does around X-mas, by finishing the house. And I really really think it is almost done now :) The dining table still needs to be stained, but that will be done when te weather is nice again.

Last Wednesday I celebrated my 28th birthday. And I must say that turning 28 isn't so bad, compared to turning 27. I really needed to get used to that number, but 28 is way easier :) I had the day off, which gave me time to go to the hairdresser and to make cake. Baking is one of my hobbies and for the occasion I experimented with colour...

the cake batter before the oven...

the cake, decorated with whipped cream and cinnamon sugar

Quite happy with the result and the surprise on the faces of my guests was great too!

And I was really into colour last week, so I also made this celery - green paprika soup. *nom-nom* If you are interested in the recipe please let me know!

In the christmas vacation (I had the luxury of two weeks of freedom) I finally bought a new camera, a real camera, a Canon 600D. The weather hasn't really been cooperating, so I've only been out to takes some photos once. Two of my favourites.