Howling at the Moon

To decorate the front door for the Easter Brunch that's coming up in our house, I made this Easter Wreath with left overs from the wire bunny that I made a couple of weeks ago and the pheasant feathers that I used last week for a center piece.   The only thing I had to buy were faux eggs. I made hole in it with a screw and threaded the eggs over the wire. Then sticked feathers on the eggs and that was it. About ten minutes of work. I got this idea here ~*~ My Lalylala Spring Bunny was featured by Creative Jewish Mom and by Scrapality ! Thank you very much, Sara and Andrea!

In my Pinterest feed I got some pins of crocheted 'Nuestra Senoras'. They made me think of a trip to the Spanish Island of Lanzarote, belonging to the Canary Islands, a couple of years ago. We were there in the week of Semana Santa, the week between the last sunday before Easter (Dominica in Palmis) and Easter itself, because we wanted to visit one of the processions in the capital of the island, Arrecife. Like the rest of Spain the Canary Islands are mostly Catholic, so religious days are celebrated with a lot of pageantry. The most beautiful statue that was carried around was of the Virgin de los Dolores, also called Virgin the Los Volcanes, who is the patron of the island. Volcanoes are found everywhere on the island, all Canary Island are volcanic. This is what the 'real' Virgin de los Dolores really looks like. Normally the statue can be found in the charming little white church of Mancha Blanca, a small village on the island. The pins didn...

This week I made the French Cheese Soup with Croutons. We all like cheese around my house, but making soup with cheese is something different. It wasn't all oohs and aahs. I was the only one who liked it, although it tastes much like Cheese Fondue. My husband and children don't like Cheese Fondue either, so that makes sense. Anyway, this recipe didn't make the 'To Keep-list'.  The little Garlic Bread Wheels that I made to go with the soup were a total hit on the other hand. And so simple to make!  What you need: Cressent Dough Butter Garlic, grated What to do: Melt the butter Add garlic Smear garlic butter on dough Roll up dough Bake in oven until golden brown   ~*~ Next week I would like to make this delicious looking Snack Mix , as seen at Martha Stewart. Perfect for our family movie night.  On Pinterest I see lots of snack mixes come along, but here in The Netherlands folks aren't really familiar with this phenomenon....

This weekend my family will come over for an Easter Brunch, so I made a flower centerpiece to fill the table.  What you need: Jar Small vase that fits through the opening of the jar Tulips Daffodils First I cut the tulips off about 10cm under their head. To stop them from growing, I pierced a little hole just under their head with a needle.  I filled a jar with water and arranged the tulip heads in a circle along the edges of the jar.  Then I put the daffodils in the vase and the vase in the jar before they were blooming, so the flowers wouldn't break off because they were too big. After two days the daffodils started to bloom and now the centerpiece is ready to show off.   ~*~ After some vain hope a couple of times I think spring is finally coming to Western Europe. Only a bit of cold weather in the forecast for this weekend and then temperatures will rise, I hope. In my garden some of the flowers came up weeks ago, but only start...

Maybe you do remember Vlad the Vampire that I made half a year ago (wow, six months ago, time does fly, but by the way) from Lalylala. On her blog she does have a free modification pattern to make a Bunny from the basic doll pattern. I didn't make exactly the same bunny, as I embroidered a violin on its belly instead of a rose and used other colors, as pink violins don't exist (not around here anyway). Spring is coming! ~*~ The little Aphid that I made last week is featured by Creative Jewish Mom ! Thank you very much!

~Since I pinned lots of recipes on my Pinterest boards through the years, but never made anything from the pinned items, I've set myself a goal to try one recipe per week to reduce the overload~ As promised here's the Rice Cake . Not as delicious as I thought it would be, I missed the hearty taste of a crust. Next time I will try to make this as a tart. ~*~ Do you like cheese? I looove cheese. All sorts of cheese, but especially the ripe ones. So when I found this recipe for French Cheese Soup with Croutons I knew I had to make this one day. This day will be somewhere in the upcoming week.

Normally I don't really decorate my house for Easter, but because there will be a brunch at our house for my family I thought the house will look nicer when there's something on the table that has to do with Easter (besides our own Flemish Giant Haasje of course, who's the best Easter Bunny ever!).  So I bought paper eggs, paint, real eggs and pheasant feathers. The real eggs came in a carton box and the box was what I needed (well, I could use the eggs, too, but not for this decoration project).  Painted the eggs and let them dry Covered the eggs in Modpodge Sticked the feathers to it Covered eggs and feathers again in Modpodge Put the eggs in the carton box Arranged them on a serving plate with daffodils, a bunny and the rest of the feathers. I found this idea here

~Since I pinned lots of recipes on my Pinterest boards through the years, but never made anything from the pinned items, I've set myself a goal to try one recipe per week to reduce the overload~ The recipe I planned to try this week was a really easy one. Grilled cheese sandwich baked in a frying pan instead of a sandwich maker. The trick to make them golden brown is to smear mayonaise on the outside of the sandwich before baking.  ~*~ For next week I have in my mind to make a Rice Cake . I live in The Netherlands and this very small country is divided in different districts called provincies. One of the provincies, that in my opinion is very far away from where I live (it's about 300km, but it's about context, you know; 300km is literally the other side of the country), is Limburg. A specialty of Limburg is a cake named 'vlaai' (sounds a bit like 'fly') and the very best vlaai is the rijstevlaai, which is a cake bottom filled with desse...

Although in real life I'm not a fan of aphid at all of course, because they damage my rose-trees,  I found this crocheted one pretty cute with its eaten leave. \ The pattern is from the book Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies by Lalylala . Other things that I made from the same book: Snail Butterfly Metamorphosis ~*~ The alebrijes that I made with my daughters (we saw them in the Pixar movie Coco and thought it would me fun to make our own) were featured by Creative Jewish Mom ! Thanks, Sara!

~Since I pinned lots of recipes on my Pinterest boards through the years, but never made anything from the pinned items, I've set myself a goal to try one recipe per week to reduce the overload~ Banana Bread recipes are popping up everywhere and when I found one without sugar, just the sweetness of the bananas themselves, I thought I should give it a try. Not that I'm against sugar, because I looove sugar, especially when combined with chocolate, but it doesn't any harm to have at least one sugar free recipe in my cookbook.  So here is the No Sugar, Just Bananas Bread and the taste is great! The only thing I changed in the original recipe is that I added pecans. ~*~ On to next week! Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with mayonaise! Because the secret to a golden brown and creamy grilled sandwich is mayonaise, as told in this recipe. Mayonaise? I have to try this myself!

After some icy cold weeks, we could even skate on natural ice, now spring is in the air. We went from -5 degrees Celsius to 9 degrees in one day and nature came to life immediately. At least in my garden.  Now that temperatures are a bit more comfy, I get a feel of summer and summer makes me want to redecorate in boho style. Hence this crocheted boho chandelier. First I crocheted a doily that I attached to a hoop and from there on I crocheted a mesh that becomes smaller to the top of the lamp.  I found this idea here and then made my own version of it. ~*~ My Bunny Wire Pendant was featured by Sew Can Do and by The Answer is Chocolate ! Thanks a lot, Cheryl and Carol! The Little Turtle that I made last week was featured by Oombawka Design ! Thank you both, Rhondda&Amy!

A while ago my daughters and I went to see Coco, the Pixar animation movie about a little boy who wants to find his dead father in the after-world. The movie has the Dia de los Muertos as a theme. We all three loved the movie, even more: I think this children's movie is the best movie of 2017!  Besides all sorts of varieties on the Calavera Margarita, there were a lot of other typical Mexican things included in the movie. One of them were alebrijas, fantasy animals from Oaxaca that are painted in bright colors. Before the movie I had never heard of alebrijas, but as soon as they appeared on the screen I knew I wanted to make them with my daughters.  My daughters have one of their many school vacations this week and fortunately there's a craft store around the corner were paper mache animals are sold. We all found an animal that we liked, bought new paint also, and so it happened that at least one vacation day was filled (besides that we went skating, YAY, because fina...

~Since I pinned lots of recipes on my Pinterest boards through the years, but never made anything from the pinned items, I've set myself a goal to try one recipe per week to reduce the overload~   Have you ever tried Tres Leches Cake? I didn't, but this week I made one for the All Mexican Menu and I found it delicious! Taste, moisture, appaerance: loved it. This recipe is on my keepers list now! ~*~ For next week I found an interesting recipe for Banana Bread without sugar, which totally fits in the diet I follow. Since my weighing scale was broken I slowly took on a couple of kilo's, so the time's here to lose them again. I only have to lose five to be back on my old weight, so it's not really a big challenge, but eating Banana Bread without sugar as much as I want is definitely going to help, I think.  ~*~ The also very delicious Avocado Black Bean Quesadillas from last week were featured by Scrapality ! Thanks, Andrea!