Winner giveaway

Christmas passes by too quickly! Hope you all had a good time?! I always enjoy the days before Christmas; preparing our traditional Christmas turban and dinner, doing last minute shopping and getting the house ready. I managed to finish my doily table runner just in time for Christmas breakfast. I will show you some photo's next time.

Thank you all for taking part in my giveaway! I had not expected such a huge response, Christmas being such a busy time of year. A warm welcome to my new followers as well.

This time my giveaway goes to England, to Kazzy from the blog Country Rabbit. Congratulations Kazzy! Will you mail me your address, so that I can send the book your way? I hope the other ladies and a few gentlemen will have more luck next time.

I am off to the DIY shop to get some paint. My eldest daughter Myrthe is moving out next week and starting a new chapter of her life. The house she and her boyfriend rented needs a lick of paint and some cleaning up, to make it all look fresh. Such an exciting period for her. Fortunately for me, she is not moving too far away, so I can easily pop over for a cup of tea now and then :-)


Wish you all a lovely day!

Madelief x

 

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas holidays have started for me. It means getting out of bed at half past seven, instead of a quarter to six, having extra time for my husband and daughters, do some crocheting & sewing and lots of baking and cooking. 

I started baking Berry meringue slices, which are absolutely delicious and fun to make. What you need is:

* 400 g flour
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 6 eggs
* 150 g + 200 g sugar
* 1 little bag of vanilla sugar
* 150 g of cold butter
* 500 g mixed berries (red berries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries) (fresh or frozen)
* 200 g grounded almonds or almond powder
* icing sugar, for dusting

Mix the flower and the baking powder. Divide the eggs and keep the egg whites in the fridge. Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Add 150 g sugar, vanilla sugar, 150g of cold butter in little parts and 2 teaspoons of cold water. With your hand knead the dough in the bowl until it just comes together into a ball, then wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes before using.

Clean the berries and drain them. Frozen berries should be defrosted and drained as well before you use them. Preheat the oven (electric 175 degrees Celsius, gas mark 2, hot air 150 degrees celcius). Roll out the dough on a baking tray (30 x 45 cm) and bake for about 15 minutes. Leave the oven on afterwards.

Get the egg whites from the fridge and start whisking. Slowly add 200 gr of sugar. Whisk until the mixture forms stiff peaks, when the whisk is lifted. Carefully fold the 200 gr ground almonds and mixed berries into the egg whites. Spread the mixture over the dough and put back into the oven for 20 minutes. Leave to stand until it's cold. Dust with icing sugar and cut into slices.

The merinque slices are a hit in my family. I made some this afternoon and half of it is already gone :-). The floral teacups and gold floral tea plates are recent thrift store finds. Aren't they just beautiful?!

This will be my last post before Christmas. I will be taking a short break, to get everything ready at home. I haven't decided on my Christmas dinner yet and I still need to finish my doily table runner. Sorry I haven't been able to pop over to your blogs as often as I used to, but a lot is happening in my life at the moment. I hope the new year will be a good one.

I wish you and your family all the best for a wonderful Christmas! Have fun!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

LOVE,

Madelief x

Christmas giveaway

This post is to say thank you for your friendship, your enthusiasm & your kind comments! It's always a joy to open up my blog and see what you wrote! I would like to give one of you a book I recently found and like very much. It's called Creative Walls by Geraldine James. It shows how to display and enjoy treasured collections. From plates, books amd prints to bizarre decorative objects, like stuffed birds and skulls. The last ones are not really to my liking, but maybe they appeal to you! The book has beautiful photographs and imaginative ideas for making a wall look pretty.

The only thing you have to do is to leave a comment on this post. I would appreciate it if you would link my giveaway to your blog, but don't feel obliged. Everyone can participate, old and new followers. I will send all over the world. On the 27th of December one of my daughters will pick the winning number. Good luck to you all and thank you once again!

I would like to say a special thank you to Geraldine for sending me some lovely doilies. Yvonne sent me some as well, accompanied by a little guardian angel. I gave it a special place in our tree. Dear Yvonne and Geraldine, a big kiss to you both. It's because of you that, if I want to, I can now make a tablecloth of doilies :-)!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

LOVE,

Madelief x

 

Snow white

When I look out of the window, everything is covered with a thin layer of snow. It must have fallen in the early hours of the morning. It looks magical. The perfect weather for making everything look cosy at home and start decorating for Christmas.

I bought some tiny white deer, which I placed on a candle tray. My daughters find the deer hard to resist. They go from hand to hand and room to room. I find them everywhere. I was even served some for dinner, in a floral terrine, a recent thrift store find :-)

This afternoon the girls and I bought our Christmas tree. The tree (in a pot) was so heavy, we could hardly carry it up the two flights of stairs into our apartment, but we managed! We will leave it there for the night and start decorating tomorrow. Another task to look forward too.

Is your tree already up?

Wish you all a wonderful weekend. Stay warm. It will be -15 degrees Celsius in Holland tonight. Brrrr!

LOVE,

Madelief x

Doily hunt

I am on a doily hunt. Inspired by the many creative ideas on doilies, which I see passing by on the internet, I decided on making a table runner for Christmas. The last two years I built up quite a collection, but I still need one or two big ones and a few smaller ones to finish it off. With a bit of luck I will find some more on our local flea market, so that it will be ready on time.  

The white coffee pot and egg cups, with scenes of Amsterdam canal houses & churches on them, are recent thrift store finds. For only 2,50 euro (pot) and 25 cents for the cups it was an absolute bargain. I think they look very stylish. They like the design at home too, but think it is not done to have an Amsterdam coffee pot in a Rotterdam home. It's betrayal of the worst kind! I am totally outnumbered,..... it's four to one......but the pot and cups are still in my cupboard (don't know for how long though :-)

We have lots of guests lately. The perfect opportunity to do some baking. The girls and I decided on chocolate cupcakes from the Hummingbird bakery cookbook. A good choice. The cakes were absolutely delicious!  The sponge is light and moist and the chocolate frosting just perfect. I can recommend the recipe to you.

This week I made a slow start on my Christmas decorating. More about it next time!

A happy weekend to you all!

LOVE,

Madelief x

With a big kiss and hug to my uncle and aunt in Wahlwiller. Thinking of you.