Almost New Year!

Only a few more days to go before the New Year! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas? Ours was different from other Christmases, because my parents couldn't join us. My mother slipped in the snow and hurt her knee badly. She is still in a lot of pain and moving around on cruches. We also had a sick daughter and a very tired and sick niece and nephew who visited us, but spend quite some time sleeping. I wasn't feeling too good either. I suppose all the dinner parties, lunches, perfomances with my choir and the shopping for Christmas, had taken their tole. Luckily I still have a few more days left to stay at home and relax :-)!

Today's pictures show the turban I always make the day before Christmas. It's so big that we can eat from it for quite some time. It's just a simple cake filled with small pieces of chocolate and nuts, but we like it very much. It looks very decorative too with the sugar glacing and the silver pearls.

I would like to thank Sabine from the blog Beldecor, who send me and my daughters three lovely scented bags that she made herself. Bine they are really beautiful! Thank you very much for sending them! Please have a look at her blog. It's one of my favourites!

I wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Creative New Year, full of love and friendship! Take care!

Lieve groet, Madelief

Homemade

Holland is covered under a blanket of snow. I so love this weather. It looks absolutely magical! I have been in the kitchen all morning preparing Cranberry relish and cupcakes. The house smells like heaven.

The Cranberry relish will be a present for friends and family. Most of the cupcakes will go with me tonight, when I have a performance with my choir in Schiedam. We will be singing English and German Christmas Carols and some American Christmas songs.  Afterwards we will have tea, coffee and cakes. I am a bit nervous, but also look forward to it very much. It's always such a happy event!

It's a special day today as well, because my beautiful eldest daughter Myrthe is celebrating her 21st birthday! Dear Myrthe, when you read this, one more big kiss to you!!

I am not really sure if I will have much time left next week to leave comments. The week is filled with work, lunch and dinner appointments, one more performance and the preparations for a Christmas brunch and dinner with the family.

I wish you all  lots of LOVE and a Merry Christmas! Have Fun!

Madelief

Snow white

Our Christmas tree is still standing in the hall, waiting to get it's final position in the living room, but I could not wait any longer. I simply had to start decorating. I made a simple wreath with all kinds of green twigs to put on our front door, mixed some bunches of white flowers and put more Christmas decorations around the house. 

We had pea soup for lunch. It tasted really delicicous! My pea soup was never a great success, but I believe that for the first time ever I managed to get it right!

After years of waiting and searching, I found the white Hella Jongerius vase in the Ikea last week. I am so happy with it! It looks very simple, but with the little holes that make a floral pattern, ít looks absolutely beautiful. I arranged the silver branches in the vase and decorated them some more with angels, metal hearts and a beautiful snow star made of tiny beads that Nicola sent me.

Dear Nicola thank you once again for Delia's cookbook and the magical star! I hope my parcel will arrive soon :-). I have been leafing through the cookbook and the Cranberry pudding looks very tempting!

I hope you will all have a great weekend!

Lieve groet, Madelief

The beauty of it all!

 


While I am sitting behind my computer, taking little sips of my Cranberry tea, big snowflakes are falling down. On a day like this I almost bubble with excitement. When I walked through the old town of Schiedam during my lunch break, I realised what a lucky person I am, to have all this history on my doorstep. The snow only adds to it's beauty. The old houses that look like a scene from a painting of one of the old Dutch masters. The ice on the canals. The people wrapped up in their thick wintercoats, wearing all kinds of funny hats. Sinterklaas decorations adjourning the streets. I could go on and on.......I realise not all of you will be happy with this weather, but I hope that despite the disadvantages that come with it, you will be able to see the beauty of it all!

Last week I met Ingrid from the blog Home and Lifestyle. From the moment we met we started talking and didn't stop until two hours later. There was so much to share. It was like meeting an old friend. She even brought me two beautiful light blue placemats, covered with roses, for in my garden house. Ingrid, thank you once again for the lovely present and afternoon. It was so good meeting you! I hope one day you will be able to see for yourself how your placemats look on my garden table.

Wishing you all a happy weekend. Enjoy your Sinterklaas!

Lieve groet, Madelief