Thursday, October 31, 2013

The one with the accessory giftguide

This one is the second in a giftguide series, for holiday shopping on a budget. Last week was the first one, with vintage goodies. The finds of this week might be perfect for your friend who likes to accessorize. All of them - including a pair of diamond earrings! - are under € 10 euro's (or in dollars, they're all under $ 14,-). 






Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The one with Mariken van Nieumeghen

As you might know, my name is Marieken, and I live in a Dutch city named Nijmegen. There was another Mariken living in the same city, in a medieval miracle play from the 16th century.


In the story, Mariken lives near Nijmegen and is send to get groceries at the market in Nijmegen. She is supposed to spend the night at her aunt, but the two get into a fight. She goes back home praying desperately, not caring if she gets help from God or the Devil. The Devil hears her and takes her to the cities Den Bosch and Antwerpen, where they live in sin for seven years. After that, she returns to Nijmegen, and regrets the things she has done. She seeks forgiveness, which is finally granted to her by the pope. The moral of the story: no mather what you've done, it's always possible to get forgiveness.

Mariken is quite famous over here, there's a statue (which I can almost see from my home). There are a street, a sportsclub, the biggest ladies run of the Netherlands, and a train named after her. Not quite sure if I should be happy to share a name with this lady though!




Friday, October 25, 2013

The one with the things I liked this week (part 39)



These guys

To compensate a rather dull jewelry trade show: cheese!

Finally got to give these lovely fabrics scraps to a friend.
I got them from Sarah Waterhouse. Printed by hand
on sustainable fabric in her own studio.

More nature

Thursday, October 24, 2013

The one with the vintage giftguide

Is it too soon to talk Christmas yet? I sure hope not! To find my family and friends a special something for the holidays, I have started a treasury hunt on Etsy . I thought it might be fun to make some giftguides the coming weeks. This one is (as you might have figured out from this posts' title) for your friend (or aunt, or neighbour) who likes vintage. Unfortunately, I am on a bit of a budget, so I've been looking for goodies that are budget-friendly. These are all under € 10 euro's (or in dollars, they're all under $ 14,-). Are you already thinking about the holidays?



Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The one with a couponcode

For no special reason I'm offering a 15% discount on everything in my Etsy shop. If you were thinking about doing some early christmas shopping, or getting yourself a little something, you might want to do so today. The offer is just for today and only with couponcode 15OFFTODAY. It's valid for everything in the shop.


Monday, October 21, 2013

The one with the goat's cheese salad



What you'll need (lunch for two):
  • 75 grams of lettuce
  • half a cucumber
  • 1 avocado
  • a big slice of (soft) goat's cheese
  • parmesan
  • 2 tablespoons of roasted pine nuts
  • 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons of honey



What you'll need to do:
Toss together the vegetables, the pinenuts and crumbled goat's cheese. Make a dressing of the oil and the honey, and add this too. Before serving grate the parmesan over it.


I served the salad with warm bread and kept the cheese close, for extra grating during lunch. In my opinion you can never, ever have too much cheese!



Friday, October 18, 2013

The one with the things I liked this week (part 38)


Finding a new creation just around the corner

I received these in my mailbox, with names like
'the rock star', 'the trucker' and 'the magician'

making some teeny tiny brooches

Very happy that I didn't have any outdoors activities planned last
sunday. Just some reading and catching up on my favourite series

Deep in thoughts

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The one with lots of colour

With the days getting shorter, the temperatures getting lower and the amounts of rain increasing, I am craving lots of colorful things to surround myself with. Trying to postpone the first hot chocolate of the season and not getting my winter coat out of the basement just yet. Hanging on to summer as long as I possibly can. 





Monday, October 14, 2013

The one with peanutbutter and chocolate squares (that aren't squares)

You might have seen the result of this cooking adventure in a previous post (one of the ones with the things I liked). I've made this recipe by Nigella a couple of times, and changed the original recipe a bit. I prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate, so I switched to amounts of those, I added a bit of honey and I stopped trying to make the perfect little squares that Nigella makes. I love how easy they are to make and that no baking is required. Oh, and they taste pretty good too!


What you´ll need for Nigella's peanutbutter and chocolate squares:

  • mini muffin liners

For the base
  • 50 grams of caster sugar
  • 200 grams of icing sugar
  • 50 grams of butter
  • 200 grams of peanutbutter (the smooth kind)
For the topping
  • 200 grams of dark chocolate
  • 100 grams of milk chocolate
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of honey



What you'll need to do:
Stir the ingredients for the base together with a wooden spoon. Fill each mini muffin liner with a small ball of this mixture. Slowly melt the chocolate and stir in the honey and the butter. Top each one of the liners with a spoon of the melted chocolate mixture. Put them in the fridge and leave them there for an hour.





This is what Nigella's perfect little squares look like. I gave up
hope to ever accomplish to make them look like that.

Friday, October 11, 2013

The one with the things I liked this week (part 37)


A cake, made by my 90 year old granny

I almost never get myself flower, but last weekend I did

The fair's in town this week

We had a little cheese-fest last weekend. 
The cheddar with stilton in it was my favourite.


Wednesday, October 9, 2013

The one with World Post Day

Did you know that today is World Post Day? It happens every year on october 9 and was first declared at the Universal Postal Union Congress in Tokyo in 1969. I'm an old fashioned girl that loves handwritten and stamped mail. Even though I don't collect stamps, I do appreciate a pretty one! Some of them are little pieces of art. Today I sent out mail to my granny, a friend I met in Spain (during a language course) and a friend who lives 2,5 hours away from me. And after work I've found two cards in my mailbox: hooray! Are there more 'real' mail lovers over here?





And another hooray! One of my bags got featured today over at Jillian's blog!