Valentine

Come on girls, don't just wait for him to send you a card. Make sure you give him the message that you are THE ONE, could be for now or maybe for longer. Sometimes it's us who want to be rescued, but they need a bit of love rescuing as well from time to time.

at Liefgoed

Best friends

M: Do you sometimes think back about how your friendships started? This is a little story about us because it is now 15 years ago that we met. Joyce and I have been colleagues in the beginning as we worked as secretaries at a large tax consultancy firm. I was at home for a month due to pneumonia

that I picked from a three day snow trip during which I never sobered up and Joyce had her first working day at the firm during that period. We heard about each other and in a strange way we knew we would be friends without haven spoken or seen each other. And so it was. I do not recall

our first working day together but our friendship started.

J: But I do recall that very first day. First you have to know that Mo was known at the office as a quite fearful but elegant lady working for an unpredictable but established partner in the firm. I met her during lunch, and she was wearing a leopard printed jacket which was not really my style, but even with the unlikeable jacket she was a presence I immediately was drawn to. Which is hard, as people wearing cloths I don’t like become naturally in my redzone.

During the years we had so much fun together, we share the same humor and find it still unbelievable that others don’t. Probably also the reason why we don’t have any real friends, just joking.

M: We always had a drive to do something creative next to our 9 to 5 jobs. We did our beading workshops and drove with our beads in big baskets to the ladies explaining them how they could make a necklace or bracelet without hurting themselves.

J: I even remember a beading party where we simply didn’t turn up in time because we couldn’t fiind the house, but did find McDonalds instead. I also believe that it was the turning point for us to stop our help for non creative women or men.

M: This project ended as Joyce did not have enough time to combine the beads with the kids, bless her as we were kind of fed up with it! For a couple of years we did not engage ourselves in any creative business but four years ago we had enough energy, time and good spirits to start up Liefgoed. This feeds us in every sense and satisfies our needs to be creative. We are the best couple without sex. We do not always see eye-to-eye but always understand where we are coming from and keep each other sharp and most important we are always honest. We treasure our friendship. Joyce once said, a real friend is someone you would find shelter if there was a war. We both know where to go when hell breaks loose! Up to the next 15 years!

J: hear hear!

Freezing

It's freezing out here and everybody is so into the idea of ice skating. The thought itself makes me shiver and crawl even closer to the heater. But still, the idea of ice skating did get me to make this.

Still going strong....

Today I am celebrating my dog’s birthday as Kay reached the amazing age of 15! In human life this would probably mean that she is 83 years old but everybody has another opinion about that. Anyway, it’s pretty old for a dog!

I picked her up from the shelter about 13 years ago and she has been with me ever since. She has seen the best and the worst of me and men come and go although she never bit them even if I asked her to.. My other dog Angel is also aging but the black one is still the boss here in the house.
Joyce’s first dog Tommy was one of her best friends and Chill, the new one, is a little too enthusiastic for her sometimes but I am sure that hanging out with the young ones keeps her on her toes…

Today is a joyful day!

Favourite artists of this very moment

Christmas is long gone, so we'll have The Script as our favourite for a while. Not that I knew them, my 11 year old son pointed them out to me as a suitable Liefgoed blog music. Hope Mo agrees. The singer actually reminds me of one of my nephews.

Photograph via Last.FM

Bruges

Two days of Bruges, Belgium together with my husband, without the children. A real treat. Below some highlights & links.

1. Wonderful guesthouse Cote Canal & Huyze Hertsberge. Big rooms, great ambiance and excellent service;
2. Being a vegetarian married to a non-vege, there should be both on the menu. Baobab serves great dishes with excellent wine;
3. A place we've visited before many years ago for a quick lunch, but also good for dinner or just a drink. Has a cinema next to it and serves the largest menu of rum I've ever seen. It's called De Republiek;
4. Only open during lunch hours and very popular amongst the vegetarians Lotus;
5. A little shop selling 'out of the ordinairy' stuff from tribal to industrial. Bummer they didn't have that lamp in another colour. Depot D'o;
6. Beautiful gallery with a great diversity of artworks, Absolute Art Gallery;
7. All about paper & postcards, definitely worth a visit Alfa Papyrus, you won't leave empty handed;
8. Though all of Bruges is one big historical monument, het Begijnhof has a special ambiance;
9. Nice exhibition at the 'Oud Sint Jan' From Picasso to Joan Miro;
10. Bruges is full of places selling the most excellent chocolates, I believe in total 53. Zucchero makes & sells all kinds of sugars for birth, baptism or wedding.
11. The very tiny oh so typical Belgian pub Garre, serving a huge list of beers including there own. Luckely for me wine is also available.

Merry Christmas

Just a few hours till Christmas Eve so we are still in time. We wish you all a very nice Christmas time. Although we are not exactly alike the two girls in the picture, it should resemble us, Mo on the left and me in the green on the right. Mo would have gained quite a lot of weight, which isn't true and I would have grown in height, which is unfortunately also untrue.

We've also taken James out of the Music section and replaced him with some Christmas songs. It's a bit of a rock Christmas section now, as we're not in to the very very traditional Christmas songs. Enjoy.

Christmas princesses

Wondering what your princess is going to wear at Christmas? Visit Moti, they have lovely dresses for your girls, made of natural fabric and out of the ordinary. Have a look! My favourite is the blue with gold. You can buy them online at Moti or at Imagine (also selling our postcards) or Lovely at the Park, both in Amsterdam.

Liefgoed in the newspaper Het Parool

The finest DIY for Christmas 2011

I've been surfing the web yesterday evening for the finest DIY for Christmas this year and maybe it's me being too difficult, but it was quite a search looking for extraordinary projects that I really really liked and wanted to do myself. But here they are.

1. Lovely white scenery in a jar from Tortoise and the Hare

2. Nice white clay ornaments, could be used all year around actually. I can also see them used for an advent calender. By Fancy House Road

3.  Truly nice christmas ornaments for in the tree or on a simple branch of wood. By Voyages of the Creative Variety

4. A twinkling glass and red and white chandelier by Fun.kyti.me

5. A beautiful soft and colourful christmas ornament by Happy Serendipity

6. Excellent gift tags free to print for you by Eat drink chic

7. A rendeer shirt, or skirt if you want. Also nice for the kids. By Freckles in April