Gift giving

First of all a big thank you to all of you who participated in my first ever bloggy give away! It was fun reading your comments and apparently my bloggy audience is particularly interested in purses and surprises.

Below you will find my recipe for 'a random winner':

Necessities:

bloggy comments a big bowl & an innocent hand

Let innocent hand stir bloggy comments and have innocent hand pull out 1 bloggy comment

And the winner is:

- insert drumroll here -


Erin from The Gerster Family!!!

Erin chose option 3 which is the surprise. I still can't tell you anything about it of course because, well, that would just spoil it, now wouldn't it?! I will however take pictures before sending the present off to Erin so I can show it to you once she has received it. The only thing I can say is that the surprise would have been different for everybody.

Erin, please e-mail me your home address so I can send a little surprise your way!
(Click on 'view my complete profile' and there you should have the possibility to contact me by e-mail.
Of course other people who would just like to send me an e-mail are free to do the same :) )

The gift of Wisdom

I just got back from my yearly check up at the dentist and I (only) have one cavity. Not so bad, were it not that the cavity is located in my wisdom tooth... which means that the dentist would prefer to pull it.

Just to illustrate how much I'm looking forward to my next appointment (June 10):
I had to have my lower wisdom teeth pulled a couple of years ago. I brought my discman along so I wouldn't have to listen to any of the sounds that accompany the pulling of a wisdom tooth! The dentist and his assistant sure thought it was funny...

Well, I suppose there are worse things in the world. And the dentist promised me that an upper wisdom tooth is much easier to pull. Yeah, and needles don't hurt, right?

I think I'll leave this post pictureless :)

It's not about me, really

Dani and Elise wanted to hear a little more about my husband’s trip to India last week so instead of devoting a post to the fact that yesterday I spent most of my day in the basement trying to mop up 4 centimetres of water due to a broken water pump, I will tell you a bit more about where my sweetheart went (whose name is Kenneth by the way). I’m thinking you’ll like this post better anyway. It definitely has better pictures!

So, the place he had to travel to is called Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay). Wikipedia tells me it’s the second most populous city in the world and it’s the commercial centre of India. Kenneth told me it was hot and humid and the women dressed in beautiful colourful sari’s. He did see the Gate of India, the first thing visitors arriving by boat see of Mumbai. Wikipedia tells me it looks like this (he didn’t take any camera with him):

Now it is mango season in India. They are very proud of their Alphonso mango’s. Kenneth said there were mango’s everywhere: pieces of fruit to be eaten for breakfast, mango juices freshly squeezed (can you squeeze a mango?), mango for dessert and so on. He brought home over a dozen mango’s. My daughter likes them. I tried a teeny tiny bit. Kenneth said it was a tiny teensy weensy bit. So far as I could tell from that tiny bit it was ‘carrot meets pumpkin’. Not my thing really.

He brought back these handcarved wooden figurines representing the god Ganesh. Wikipedia tells me he is apparently the most worshipped god in India. He is the god of knowledge and wisdom, remover of obstacles and protects travellers. Kenneth told me he bargained for the price and that there were also figurines with an everlasting smell costing 10 times as much.

He also brought back some toys (for the kids obviously) and I got some ALIEN (as in a large bottle of the Thierry Mugler perfume).


I’ve never been to India myself. It’s actually not even on my wish list of places I’d like to visit. I’m sure there are beautiful things to be seen out there, but there are just other places I’d rather see if I were to have the time and money.

Edit:

My wish list includes in random order: Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Australia, New Zealand & Canada

So far I've been to The Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Andorra, England & Greece

The furthest I’ve been is to the States.

Where have you been?

It is time...

Most of you probably guessed that I haven't blogged for an obvious reason: yes, my hubby came back safe and sound (not to mention with presents!) from India so we've been trying to make up for lost time during the weekend.

Now however it is time for the little giveaway I posted about so if you care to receive a little present from Belgium for free, please read on.

• What to do:
  
  Leave me a comment on this post and make sure I have a way to contact you either through your blog or via e-mail so I can ask you for your home address.
  
  


• What to win: I will be giving away 1 of the following items:
  
  Option 1: a little personalised purse (see my Etsy shop)
  
  Option 2: a personalised bib (see my Etsy shop)
  
  Option 3: a surprise ! (nope, can't tell you anything about that one yet!)
  
  


• What's the catch?
  
  No catch, except that I would greatly appreciate receiving some feedback once you've received your present (e.g. how long did it take to reach you, what do you think about the packaging and - dare I ask - did you like the present?)
  

You have time until Sunday May 25 to leave me a comment mentioning the option of your choice. A winner will be announced on Wednesday May 28. This gift will be sent to you free of charge - so that's including shipping costs.

Good luck!!

Tania

Just yummy

According to my daughter one of her stuffed animals needed to celebrate her birthday today. She dressed "Muisie" up in one of her princess outfits and insisted on having a little snack to celebrate so I made some pancakes.

Here's my recipe for pancakes Belgian style, or pannenkoeken as we call them:

250 grams of selfrising flour

2 eggs

50 grams of sugar

1 packet of vanilla sugar

500 ml milk

drop of olive oil

Whisk the eggs together. Add the milk while stirring. Add sugar and vanilla sugar. Keep stirring. Finally add the flour and stir some more. Add just a drop of oil to make the pancakes stick a little less.

I must admit that I suffer from the "first-pancake sydrome": I never seem to get the first one just right. So don't be discouraged if the first one sticks! I use just a drop of olive oil in a non-stick medium sized pan. I find it difficult to pour just 'a drop' from a large bottle of olive oil. It's a technique I seem to master by the time I bake my last pancake :)

Belgian pancakes are thinner than American ones and we mostly eat them with white sugar (the powdery kind) or brown sugar. I pour about half of a soupserving spoon into the pan and then lift the pan up and turn it so the batter covers the entire bottom of the pan. It's all in the wrist ;)

We had some with strawberries and freshly whipped cream. Do you know how easy it is to make freshly whipped cream? Just add half the amount of sugar to your cream (so for 100 ml of cream you would use 50 grams of sugar) and use your mixer for about 1-2 minutes. If you can hold the jar upside down without spilling, you know it's ready :) And I promise you it tastes a lot better than the kind that comes from a spray can.

Surprise

Hello Daddy,

We are blowing you lots of kisses all the way from Belgium to India!!!

We are really looking forward to having you home again. Only 3 more nights.

Heel veel knuffels en dikke zoenen,

Robin & Caitlin

Photo by Robin.


I miss you lots,
Love,
Tania

Mother's Day

Yesterday it was time for the kids to grab their presents they had made in school from under their beds or whatever place they were hiding them (as I promised not to look) and bring them downstairs for me to open. Here's a peek:

Note: the little tower of 'Ferrero Rocher' chocolates doesn't quite look the same anymore since it is rapidly decreasing... must be the sun ;)

From my son I got the flower (they used a napkin decoupage technique on the pot) and the handmade card. My daughter had a cookbook (see picture below) and some (plastic) toasting glasses (which she claimed for herself).

We also saw this at 7.10 in the morning (picture was taken from inside our kitchen, without zoom).

There was a second hot air balloon following closely.

The only downside to this particular mother's day was that my husband had to leave for India for a week - at 8.30 in the morning. So we'll be missing him till he comes back on Saturday.

And I just had to include this picture of my daughter.

She looks so darling...