Amsterdam revisited

My mother and I spent our short time in Amsterdam walking around. We did take a canal tour after we checked into our hotel. After all, what better way to see Amsterdam than through the connected canals.

 

We had lunch at Chinatown which was just two streets from our hotel. We liked our lunch so much that we went back to the same restaurant before we took our train back to France 2 days later.

 

Amsterdam has lots of great museums. Yet, I decided to visit the Bags and Purses museum with my mother. It was small and quick to visit. Also, I was sure my mum would appreciate this more than the famous art musumes. We even had time for a 30mins foot massage before boarding the train home. Staying right in the center of old Amsterdam helped to make all things accessible.

 

Below is a chinese temple right in the old town of Amsterdam. We had lunch twice at one of the restaurants along this street.

 

The canal tour we took. It lasted an hour and gave insightful information about Amsterdam.

The flower market in Amsterdam. 

An interesting door sign at the tea saloon LANSKROON (Singel 385, Amsterdam). The stroopwafels here are very different from the ones we find in the supermarket. 

 The central train station.In front of it, there was a huge construction going on for a new metro line.

 The 2 stars hotel we stayed in. It was expensive for the basic room but the location more than made up for the price we paid.

 As we were there the weekend before the last Queen's day on 30 April, there were decoration of orange balloons everywhere. Queen Beatrix abdicated the Dutch throne to her son, Crown-Prince Willem-Alexanderto. Now, there would be King's day instead.

A pulley at work carrying planks up to the last floor. As Amsterdam buildings have small doors, at the top of most buildings, there would be a pulley. It was interesting looking at the different design of the roof top and the pulleys. 

 The place below is Rembrandt Square.

With only three days in Netherlands, I managed to meet up with my friend Yvonne who is married to a Dutch. We had dinner at Alkmaar and discovered this quaint city.

In my next post, I will show the photos we took from the Bags and Purses museum. Interesting museum for women who love bags.

Keukenhof

Keukenhof, the most beautiful spring garden in Europe. I had always wanted to visit it and finally after 4 years since knowing about this place, I made it last sunday.

 

My mother is here visiting us for two months and knowing that she would enjoy this garden, I arranged for a weekend trip to Amsterdam and Keukenhof in Lisse.

 

We arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday and left on Monday. On Sunday, we spent the day in Keukenhof. There were many flowers. The garden was perfumed with the scent coming from the beds of blooming hyacinths. The tulips in the open garden were mostly still in bubs. This spring is chilling so I guess the tulips would bloom a week later.

 

There were four pavillons with different themes. Each of them were amazing. Flowers were everywhere. There are many different kind of species. Just on tulips alone, there were many different kinds like 'Barbados', 'Lambada', 'Brooklyn', 'Sensual touch', 'Wedding gift', 'Victoria secret' just to name a few.

 

There were many people from all over the world. We even met Singaporeans who took photos for us. I took tons of photos but I am such a lousy photographer. Below are some photos from Keukenhof. Though a picture tells a thousand words, it is best to visit Keukenhof in person. My mother and I truly enjoyed the garden. It was wonderful for flower lovers.

 

Dandelion

Dandelion in french is called Pissenlit. Its direct translation would be 'peeinbed' due to the strong diuretic effect of the plant's roots. I was told that Pissenlit though consider a weed can be eaten as salad.

With just a few days of warm spring weather, my garden is full of weeds.

Seb is starting to dig a perimeter of 3m X 4m in the garden. It would be our vegetable plot. And looking at this area, it is already a vegetable garden full of dandelion to be used as salad. 

 

I have never tasted Pissenlit. I will be looking up for receipe online. Will update about my salad of pissenlit once it is done.

I'm a godmother

I am a godmother to a little MY since saturday. MY's mother and I are close friends since many years. I feel honored to be chosen as the godmother for this sweet baby girl.

The ceremony was held at the Greek Orthodox Church in Paris. This place is a hidden gem. Look at the beautiful façade. This side of the building is facing an inner court and opposite it is a 6 storey residental building. This façade is hidden from the public except the people living in the residental building.

 

 

 

The ceremony was intime with only families and a few close friends invited. MY's cousin was also baptised on this day. The two babies were well behaved. As the godmother, I had to carry MY all the time while the priest carried out the ceremony. It was long but MY did not cry much in my arms. She was so sweet.

 

After the ceremony, we headed to my friend's place for a meal. Though it was raining, the family prepared a BBQ and we had a great time chatting and festing.

Egg hunting

On Easter monday, we went to the kids' grandparents for lunch. It was a tradition for the kids to hunt for chocolate eggs during Easter. It was the first time that A2 hunt and pick eggs by himself. He went 'Wow' each time he found some eggs.

The older cousins helped the boys to point out the hiding places. I could tell that the boys had fun.

In the end, all the eggs were divided equally among the four grandchildren.

 This was the collect the two boys brought home. There were also bigger chocolates. Now, the boys asked for chocolates non-stop. I hid the basket and rationed an egg or two for them each day. Like my neighbour suggested, maybe these chocolates would end up as mousse au chocolat.

Two more bags

I made another two bags last week. The one below is a grab bag. It was not difficult to make. The finished bag was stiff as I used interface instead of craft fleece as indicated. It was my first attempt using iron on interface. I will make another grab bag but without the interface. I think the fabric is sturdy enough.

 

There are four pockets inside the grab bag.

 

 

 

I made a bag for my boy. It was supposed to be a 30mins boy messager bag. I thought: 'Great, just 30mins.' So when the boys slept, I started working on it at 9pm. At midnight, I was only half way through. I continued the next day. The bag below took me 5hours in total to make it. I find the front pocket too shallow. The next time, I will make it bigger. But I wonder when the next time will be.  

I am taking a break at the moment. I will most probably start making a new bag next week. Will post it once done.

Five stones

As I mentioned earlier in my post, the first thing I made from my sewing machine is five stones. Five stones are basically five little pyramids containing rice or beans inside. To play the game, we toss a stone into the air and try to catch it before it hits the ground. At the same time, we must use the same hand to pick up a stone or more (as the game advances) that is on the floor.

I bought some lovely fabrics and spent about an hour to made about two sets. Yeah, the slowest process is hand sewing the opening after putting in the rice. I guess I am good at making these. But I am a lousy player.

 

I went obsessed and made a jar of stones. Guess how many there are in the jar. If you get it right, there is a free set of five stones for you. Start counting. . . . .

 

Sewing bags

I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas and Father Christmas granted my wish. As a novice, I started making five stones. It was really easy. I will do a post about that later.

 

Now I am into bags. I found some interesting sites with free tutorials on making bags. Thank God for generous people who make an effort to share their talents on internet.

 

This is the first bag I did. As promised in the tutorial, it took an hour. I spent more time shopping for fabrics. It is not very practical to carry but I like that pocket in front. I use it to go to the library or to fetch A1 from school.

 

I bought a book titled 'Me and my sewing machine'. The book showed how to do stitches and hems and seams. At the end, there were various projects. I chose to do the bag illustrated and had done five of such little grocery bags. I love the colorful fabrics.

I also did a foldable grocery bag and had given that away before I took a photo. I have printed two other bag patterns and will try them out. I do not need all these bags and will surely give these bags away as gifts to friends. My mum-in-law requested for a beach bag. I hope to find a beach theme fabric and get it done by summer. Hopefully.... 

 

Sewing is fun.

Merry Go Round

Yesterday we went to Rambouillet which was a town nearby our village. The weather was spring like and everyone was out sitting at the terrace having a drink.

We had afternoon tea, ok, Seb had a glass of wine, I had a beer and the boys had orange juice. I asked the boys if they would like to go on the merry-go-round that was just beside the cafe. They said ok.  A1 never wanted to go on any merry go round but I felt that he had grown up and was curious about this beautiful merry-go-round in the town square.

Seb bought the tickets and for the first time, the boys took a ride on the merry go round. A1 wanted to be on the airplane and A2 chose the horse. We stayed beside the boys. It was a big merry-go-round and the boys had fun. A1 even asked for a second ride. We told him he could only do it once and it was time to go feed bread to the ducks in the castle garden.

The photo below is the said merry-go-round. It was closed when I visited Rambouillet with my friends from Singapore in February. Photo credit goes to Rachel.

  

When we go to Singapore this summer, I will propose the kiddy rides to A1. He refused it each time. I wonder will he accept it by then.