Vive les vacances!

Coucou mes copines!
I'm back again! We were in Paris and had a good time.



Which macaron shall I taste?



I cannot recommend any of these macarons because the ones I have tasted were all delicious. I took some boxes back home and send them to some special people and I can tell you that they still taste great after about a week. We couldn't save them longer as they simply are too good!



Of course we did a lot of the touristic highlights, but we what we like most is just to wander around.
In Paris there are a lot of lovely parcs and green places, like the Place des Vosges here. Btw Dees of Vosgesparis is doing a lot better, so I want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Just wandering around, looking up


and up again


Or looking down (this is the court-yard of our hotel at the Place the la République which I can recommend to everybody):




I always love the details...
on the outside and

the inside..
August is the month that the Parisiens themselves take a holiday, so places that need no introduction and where the objects are just talking for themselves are silent now...

Of course there is always some brocante to see at the Porte de Clignancourt or the Porte the Vanves, but I think Parisian brocante is expensive.

Some things never change; these beautiful art nouveau little fountains are still here!

And what never changes too: Me being at a store that I really really like to visit at...no prices are giving guessing at which date...!!

And of course Paris is the city of fashion. I wanted to talk my husband into this coiffure, but he didn't want to

So he and my youngest decided that it was time to move outside the fashion capital of the world and into this lovely hotel, which is in

Disneyland Paris

My daughter who is not named by coincidence after one of the worlds' famous photographers has specialized in taking photo's of herself and of our family including herself. We had so much fun!

Paris by night. While France is chairman of the European Union, the Eiffeltower is lit like our European flag, blue with 12 yellow stars.

We still have a couple of days off before school starts. I hope you are all doing well and I'll try to visit everybody soon, have a nice day!

Coucou mes copines!
Yep weer terug uit Parijs, ach de foto's spreken voor zich dacht ik. De Eiffeltoren, de Place de Vosges, Ladurée waar je de lekkerste amandelkoekjes kunt kopen in geweldige verpakkingen en natuurlijk wat te dure brocante gezien, alsmede ergens voor de gesloten deur gestaan, what's new? Dit reisje was mijn verjaardagscadeau en het feestcomité vond een reisje naar Parijs toch echt niet compleet zonder een bezoek aan Disneyland. Ach een gegeven paard mag je niet in de bek kijken! Prima naar ons zin gehad en nu hebben we nog een paar dagen voordat volgende week de school weer begint.

Chat soon, LiLi M.

Leaving...

My home town Dordrecht is a city of rivers. Here three rivers are coming together; the North, the old Meuse and the Merwede. When you enter the city by ship you used to enter through this gate;



You had to pay taxes, especially when you brought something into the city. Clever!

After paying (even when you went through) you could trade with the tradesmen living here; you could load and unload your ship on the backside of the houses.

Even the city hall was built in the water, it's a bridge actually.

Though you wouldn't notice that at the front anymore.

The old ports are still in use, especially for recreation ships. Here is one of the historic harbours, only historic ships are allowed to use this port.

Zooming in we can see that these old warehouses have geographic names; Sto(c)kholm in Sweden, which was a trading partner of Dordrecht.

Like Paris, the oldest part of our town is an Isle, like Île de la Cité. And here is our Notre Dame, or our Eiffel tower, as this tower is a focal point of course, like the Pisa tower it's leaning towards one side.
Tomorrow I will leave for Paris, I'm looking forward to it, but I never mind coming back here.
I haven't had time to say goodbye to all of you as I was very busy today. But I'll be back in two weeks! Au revoir!

Peeps ik knijp er eventjes twee weken tussenuit!
Hier wat beelden van de prachtige stad Dordrecht waar ik woon.
Ik vind het nooit erg om met vakantie te gaan, maar ik vind het ook nooit erg om weer thuis te komen!
Tot over twee weken!
Au revoir!

Prettige dagen = Nice days!

Hi!!

Hubby has vacation too and that means we are having a great time! Making little trips, going out for diner, shopping, visiting friends and relatives! And he has put a new tile floor in our basement! No pictures of that yet, first things first!
Zo dames, nu heeft hubby ook vakantie. Heeft hij mooi eens tijd om het souterrain te tegelen. Wij hebben hele prettige dagen;

While he was working Eva and I went shopping in Rotterdam

We didn't buy these birthday tiara's though
Lekker shoppen, al kochten we deze tiara's niet.


Neither these bunny ears.
So hubby couldn't complain at all!
En ook de oortjes lieten we liggen!


We visited my cousin and his family. His youngest was celebrating his first birthday. Here is my youngest having a great time at their swimming pool. Rest of relatives are sitting in the background.
Op verjaardags visite bij de jongste van mijn neef. Hier zie je mijn jongste zich prima amuseren in hun zwembad, terwijl de jarige met de rest van de visite op de achtergrond zit.


Do you know what really contributes to having 'prettige dagen' or nice days?
A parcel from the mail man!
I won a first price at Louise's give away at her blog 'at the Pink Gate' :


Whow!!

Everything unpacked! Look at these!! I love the magazine Louise, I have read it about a dozen times, but I still discover new things. Thank you so much for everything. That glitter bottle is sooo cute, the vintage rose pin is beautiful, it almost looks like a real fading rose. The journal is so pretty and those greeting cards are, well what can I say? Everything is too good to be true. You have spoiled me, Louise thank you sooo much!!!
Alsof het allemaal al niet gezellig genoeg was kwam de postbode ook nog eens met een pakje. Ik weet echt niet waar ik al die vrijgevigheid aan verdiend heb. Ditmaal won ik een eerste prijs bij Louise haar blog; at the pink gate. Geweldig wat een leuke prijzen. Somerset Studio is een geweldig tijdschrift dat hier helaas niet gemakkelijk te krijgen is. Bergen inspiratie! Ik ben weer zo verwend, hartstikke bedankt Louise!

Last Wednesday we went to Gouda (city hall in the background) to the flea market.
Afgelopen woensdag gingen we naar Gouda, naar Mont Martre, de zomer curiosa markt, een aanrader.


It's a nice market. No real bargains. But a good atmosphere and
Geen koopjes, maar een hele leuke sfeer en



plenty to look at
er was genoeg te zien.



Looking at is sometimes even better than buying...
Soms is kijken beter dan kopen.


Ik zie nu pas die leuke nepworsten hangen, ik neem tenminste aan dat het nep is.



Gouda is a typical Dutch old city.
Een typisch Hollands stadje....



I have lived my entire life in Holland and I still love these canals.
Some other time I'll show you something of my home town.
Ik heb nog nooit ergens anders gewoond dan in Zuid Holland. Ik blijf die oude grachten prachtig vinden...ook waar ik woon, dat zal ik een volgende keer eens laten zien.




One of the main attractions of Gouda to me is 'Atelier Puur', which means something like Studio Pure, but Pure has another meaning too in Dutch, it means dark chocolate as well.
Een andere belangrijke attractie voor mij dan toch is Atelier Puur.



It smells like heaven to me. Do you see those chocolate rivers?
Are you still with me or off to the candy tin?
Pure = Happiness!

Nou ik hoef geloof ik niets uit te leggen voor diegenen die nu kwijlend achter hun pc zitten, de anderen zijn of naar de snoeptrommel of naar de koelkast...

Of course we didn't leave empty handed.
No more pictures of the chocolates though...
Natuurlijk vertrok ik niet met lege handen.
Het is echter niet meer mogelijk om nog foto's van de bonbons te laten zien...


This is the loot; an old childrens' book "prettige dagen", beginning 20th century about having a vacation, how appropriate. Some keyhole things. A menu, I'll show that picture better some other time. And I bought 2 wrapping paper sample booklets. Never seen something like those before.
They are awesome.

Toch nog een leuke buit. Terwijl ik te weinig geld bij me had en nergens kon pinnen :-(
Twee boekjes met vellen inpakpapier uit de jaren '50. Helemaal leuk!


Flower paper...


Easter paper



Halloween??
I'm in the sweet and sinister swap as I have told you before.
My partner is Wanda of the Rat's Pajamas and another blog and an Etsy store as well. Wanda is such a nice person! Do visit her!
Is dit iets voor Halloween?
Als ik er afstand van zou kunnen doen...
Ik ben trouwens gekoppeld aan Wanda, van the Rat's Pajamas. Ze heeft nog een andere blog en een Etsy winkel, vergeet haar niet te bezoeken!



I bought a French or Belgium birth candy box.
This is my third, so we can speak of a collection...
Ik kocht een geboorte suiker doosje, mijn derde, er is dus nu serieus sprake van een collectie.



And we visited this friend who celebrated her 11th birthday.
Sometimes I think it's even more fun to put a party hat on someone you actually know than on a vintage picture. Btw I printed this picture in sepia. The picture is a bit blurry, sorry about that.
We zijn ook nog bij deze vriendin op verjaardagsvisite geweest.
Ik vind het eigenlijk nog leuker om een bekende een hoedje op te zetten dan op een vintage foto te plakken. Ik had de foto van onze vriendin wel eerst in sepia afgedrukt. Wel een blurry foto, sorry hoor.



And I have been creative with buttons...
But I cannot show you anything yet.

Ik ben ook nog creatief geweest met knopen.
Maar dat bewaar ik tot een volgende keer.
Ik wens jullie nu allemaal fijne dagen!

Now I wish every one 'prettige dagen', nice days!

xoxo LiLi M.

My dress forms

Today August 1st is 'Show me your form' day, hosted by Tiffany. Thanks for the brilliant idea! Don't forget to check out Shabby Scraps to look for the list of other dress forms shown.

I always wanted to have a dress form. Even when I played with Barbie I tried to make a dress form out of a Barbie body, but I couldn't cut through those 60-ties' quality legs. Little did I know that within 10 years most Barbies would easily loose their legs, but that's a different story.

My mother had a friend named Loes who was always thrifting and going to flea markets. She owned the perfect dress form, according to my mother. My mum died unexpected about 12 years ago. And shortly after her her friend Loes died of breast cancer. My father knew that my mother thought that Loes' dressform would be perfect for me and when he heard that Loes' heirs were selling all of her collectibles, he didn't hesitate a moment and brought me this present:

This is an antique childrens size dress form in very good condition.
The linen is perfect and the wood too.
The best is the foot, or do I have to say feet?:

Every foot is a little carved out shoe!
I have never seen anything like that.
I am still so happy with this present. My father has passed away too, but when he brought in this dress form, he was so proud and I was so happy and this is such a good memory.

I usually show this form dressed;
she wears a little dress, a hat and a little bag, that belonged to my daughter when she was 4, the little gloves were mine in the 60ties.

I have another dress form.
It is a cheap one that still can be bought today.
I covered her in an old look linen.
If you want to know how just click here.

I use her as an inspirational pin board in my studio.

Before you go I want to ask you a little favor:
My blogging friend 'Vosgesparis' aka Desiree had a severe operation today and has to recover another 10 days in hospital. Please light a candle for her, send her positive vibes or remember her in your prayers, just do as you feel like, we all hope that those positive vibes will help Dees to recover real soon. In the mean time you can wish her well giving comments on her beautiful blog. Email me if you want her address (in hospital). Thanks.
Take care Dees, I'm sending you this card:


Don't forget to check all other dress forms. There will be a list at Tiffany's.
Thanks for visiting, have a nice weekend, hugs LiLi.

Hallo allemaal!
Vandaag is het 'Show me your form' ofwel paspoppendag! Tiffany
heeft een lijst in haar blog met andere deelnemers. Ik ben nog steeds heel blij met mijn antieke kinder paspop die ik bijna 12 jaar geleden van mijn vader kreeg. Eigenlijk als een herinnering aan mijn moeder en ook aan haar vriendin Loes die allebei kort na elkaar overleden zijn, in 1996.
De paspop is in een heel goede conditie, het hout is mooi en het linnen is ook nog gaaf en mooi. Maar het leukst is wel de voet of moet ik zeggen de voetjes?
Dat zijn namelijk uitgesneden schoentjes.
Ik heb ook nog een nieuwe en zelfgepimpte paspop. Handig als prikbord.

Misschien hebben jullie al gehoord dat Dees (Vosgesparis) een ernstige operatie onder gaan heeft. Misschien is een extra commentaar op haar blog leuk, een kaarsje of een kaartje, net hoe je dat gewoon bent. Je kunt mij een email sturen voor haar adres in het ziekenhuis waar ze nog ongeveer 10 dagen zal moeten blijven. Vanaf hier sterkte Dees, het kaartje met de antieke foto is naar je onderweg!

Fijn weekend en of fijne vakantie allemaal, tot snel LiLi