Xtreme makeover

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New York VS Amsterdam

At the end of May 2008, my daughter Emma and I wish to visit New York. We would like to swap houses with people from downtown New York. We ourselves live in the most attractive part of Amsterdam within the circle of the famous canals in a nice, small, monumental house full of history. Please let us know if you're interested or know someone who is.

wow

Combining light with the airyness of balloons is creating a real wow-factor.

These were designed by Luc Schouten from Haarlem.
For a lazy sunday afternoon go for a virtual stroll to designspotter .

a summer's garden

Thanks to the saturdaymarket and some flower-arranging I have a touch of summer's garden in my kitchen.

a rose is a rose is a....

I l o v e f l o w e r s

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

Loveliness extreme.

Extra gaiters,Loveliness extreme.

Sweetest ice-cream.

Pages ages page ages page ages.

Gertrude Stein

tomato/orange soup

A few days ago I promised you the recipe of the tomato/orange soup that we had as a surprising starter at a dinnerparty.

tomato/orange soup (serves 12)

1 kilo onions

1-2 cloves of garlic

handful fresh chopped dill

2.5 ltr chickenstock

1.5 ltr canned tomatoes

grated skin of one large orange

sugar en pepper

Bake the chopped onions until soft and put the chopped garlic in.

Put all the other ingredients in the pan including half of the dill.

Let it simmer for half an hour and put it in the blender to make it a smooth soup.

serve with creme fraiche an some fresh dill.

We had it in tiny bowls with little spoons as an appetizer.

birdy

Made by Ann Wood these two fairytale objects made my day.

sunny shoes

To cute to be true. These espadrilles for little girls. I found them on the internet where they have hundreds of different espadrilles for everybody. Love their website ! It makes the sun come into your home in spite of a wet Dutch summer.

summer evening

At a perfect spot on the river Amstel, Emma and I had a lovely meal with our friends who live on a ship opposite the Amsterdam Hermitage .We had a special orange and tomatosoup as a starter . One of these days I will give you the recipe.

happy bird

I stumbled upon something happy. Visit the paper crane project and you see what I mean .

view

This is Emma, standing on the terras of the Amsterdam Central library, opened on the 7th of July. We went there today to explore the impressive building and its possibilities. We tried the internet on one of the many hightech computers and dreamed away in some magazines.
In one of them I came across the adorable musicbox "small Happiness" of designer Marjolein Houber designed in 2006.

tall ships

This morning I had a chat with a friendly Australian couple from Sydney. This gave my morning coffee at Villa Zeezicht a nice glow. Although we never got introduced, I managed to get their visitingcard. Just curious, I googled steven Dews and found out, to my surprise, that he makes the most wonderful paintings of sailing ships. Who knows we meet again some day.

wonderful story

This novel is written by my friend Marieke van der Pol.

It is a romantic story in a historic setting. Three young Dutch women travel to New Zealand to join their new husbands and set up a future in this country.

I really enjoyed this book and can surely recommend it to take it with you on your holiday and read it in the shade of an old appletree or in a peaceful corner when it rains. Look at boekentaal to read a review in Dutch.

magic in the dark

A few years ago I woke up in the middle of the night by the sound of clattering hoofs on the cobblestones of the Herengracht . When I looked out of my window I could just see the tail of a long cortege of carriages with lanterns, drawn by trotting horses in the dark. It seemed pure magic .

Today I was pleasantly surprised by hoofclattering again and was able to watch the whole cortege. In the meanwhile I found out that it concernes the yearly nightride through the centre of Amsterdam organized by the menvereniging hoofdstad aanspanning. At de website horses you can read more about it.

quatorze juillet

Every Saturdaymorning I visit the Lindengracht market for fresh flowers,vegetables and cheese. This morning started at the Coffee Company at the Haarlemmerstraat where my daughter Emma and I enjoyed our lattes.

For more marketpictures see flickr