Everything back to normal?!

Yep, he isn't wearing his Santa hat anymore. I'm always late with removing the Christmas decorations.

I packed my nativity scene yesterday.

When you look carefully, there is something very odd about this set. I inherited it from my parents and I'm not sure whether the set was actually theirs' or my grandparents'. My mother was a very practical woman who decorated minimal for Christmas. We used to live in a very small apartment. Having a Christmas tree meant that something else had to be moved. Where to? That was the problem. We always had a Christmas tree and in my memory my mother hated it every year. So I'm not having many memories about this scene and the (very ugly) stable that goes with it. The set wasn't put up every year, that's for sure.

The odd thing about this set are the proportions of the statues. Look here are two shepherds. One is so much bigger than the other.

and baby Jesus looks about 5 years old in comparison to Mary. While packing I suddenly had a 'vision'; perhaps my mother made one undamaged nativity scene out of two. It would be so much like her. Throwing the damaged chalk statues of their nativity set as well as those of my grandparents' set away and keeping the best ones, no matter that there is a difference in size. So now I have a large Jesus, big and small Kings and a smile on my face, I'm not sure whether she actually did this, but the thought that she could have done it is enough to make me smile.


The best thing about this nativity scene is the way it is packed. Do you keep your old newspapers to pack again and again and again? I even reread them :-O

Does tea (=thee) work against fall-out? That was something that was bothering the population beginning Januari 1962 (the answer is and was no!). Does anybody cares nowadays what to do against fall out?


And there is some vintage Christmas wrapping paper to pack with too.
Every year I put the statues back in newspapers starting from 1956 and ending 1965. This takes too much time actually. So that's why the first week of Januari already ruins my resolutions. At least I got this excuse!

There is more Christmas in this blog post;

Remember Wanda? She and I were swap mates in Sweet and Sinister swap. The vintage cupcake plates that I sent her back then didn't make it in one piece, so I sent her another totally Dutch package as some sort of consolation. Sorry I have forgotten to make pictures and I think Wanda has forgotten that too. At the end of 2008 Wanda sent me a Christmas goodie bag and a whole box of snacks, which disappeared miraculously ;-). I love it!

And the last Christmassy item until let's say December 2009 should have been the award that was given to me  by Jeanette, 'the Christmas spirit award' but I cannot upload photos for the last three hours :-(. I guess I should have chosen another title for my blog post.
Just check Jeanette's blog, she is the Dutch styling queen! Her home appeared in one of our major home decorating magazines 'Ariadne at home'. She has fab, authentic and creative ideas about home decorating.

I received a lovely award from Elly too. Well I guess you all know Elly's crisp and lovely blog by now and if you don't just pop over, you won't be sorry! I was planning to do something immediately with those rewards, another resolution that doesn't work, though this time it's Blogger's fault.
Ok there is no reason to write another post about this soon!
See you soon!

Everything back to normal?!

Yep, he isn't wearing his Santa hat anymore. I'm always late with removing the Christmas decorations.

I packed my nativity scene yesterday.

When you look carefully, there is something very odd about this set. I inherited it from my parents and I'm not sure whether the set was actually theirs' or my grandparents'. My mother was a very practical woman who decorated minimal for Christmas. We used to live in a very small apartment. Having a Christmas tree meant that something else had to be moved. Where to? That was the problem. We always had a Christmas tree and in my memory my mother hated it every year. So I'm not having many memories about this scene and the (very ugly) stable that goes with it. The set wasn't put up every year, that's for sure.

The odd thing about this set are the proportions of the statues. Look here are two shepherds. One is so much bigger than the other.

and baby Jesus looks about 5 years old in comparison to Mary. While packing I suddenly had a 'vision'; perhaps my mother made one undamaged nativity scene out of two. It would be so much like her. Throwing the damaged chalk statues of their nativity set as well as those of my grandparents' set away and keeping the best ones, no matter that there is a difference in size. So now I have a large Jesus, big and small Kings and a smile on my face, I'm not sure whether she actually did this, but the thought that she could have done it is enough to make me smile.


The best thing about this nativity scene is the way it is packed. Do you keep your old newspapers to pack again and again and again? I even reread them :-O

Does tea (=thee) work against fall-out? That was something that was bothering the population beginning Januari 1962 (the answer is and was no!). Does anybody cares nowadays what to do against fall out?


And there is some vintage Christmas wrapping paper to pack with too.
Every year I put the statues back in newspapers starting from 1956 and ending 1965. This takes too much time actually. So that's why the first week of Januari already ruins my resolutions. At least I got this excuse!

There is more Christmas in this blog post;

Remember Wanda? She and I were swap mates in Sweet and Sinister swap. The vintage cupcake plates that I sent her back then didn't make it in one piece, so I sent her another totally Dutch package as some sort of consolation. Sorry I have forgotten to make pictures and I think Wanda has forgotten that too. At the end of 2008 Wanda sent me a Christmas goodie bag and a whole box of snacks, which disappeared miraculously ;-). I love it!

And the last Christmassy item until let's say December 2009 should have been the award that was given to me  by Jeanette, 'the Christmas spirit award' but I cannot upload photos for the last three hours :-(. I guess I should have chosen another title for my blog post.
Just check Jeanette's blog, she is the Dutch styling queen! Her home appeared in one of our major home decorating magazines 'Ariadne at home'. She has fab, authentic and creative ideas about home decorating.

I received a lovely award from Elly too. Well I guess you all know Elly's crisp and lovely blog by now and if you don't just pop over, you won't be sorry! I was planning to do something immediately with those rewards, another resolution that doesn't work, though this time it's Blogger's fault.
Ok there is no reason to write another post about this soon!
See you soon!

Happy New Year!

Translation: Sincere wishes because of the New Year!

I like to wish each and every one of you a very happy, healthy and creative 2009! 2008 was a great year to me having so many valuable blogfriendships, I want to thank you all for that!

Do you have some resolutions? I always have, even if there isn't a change of years ;-), here we go:

1. No chocolate nor lumps of cheese shall be eaten by me during Januari. In stead of that I will be art journaling. :-)

2. I'll try to write down a little family history together with my aunt, who isn't aware of this resolution, but I'll need her help to complete this one.

3. Starting a little project 'a smile a week'; I'll try to surprise somebody in a pleasant way once a week at least. Stay tuned for more about this project.

4. I want to blog more, write more often, perhaps (I will not make this one a promise!) shorter posts, create more!

(This is what I sent Elly winner of my October give away)

With of without resolutions 2009 will be a special year!

In April hubby and I will celebrate the fact that it is 30 years ago that we were dating for the first time. Oh my, there were times that I thought that 30 was an age for dinosaurs let alone that somebody could do anything for 30 years!

We booked a trip for 2009:

What do I have to say? Well, that we are all looking very much forward to this!

I do hope 2009 will be filled with fun and laughter for all of us!

What are your plans?

Happy New Year!

Translation: Sincere wishes because of the New Year!

I like to wish each and every one of you a very happy, healthy and creative 2009! 2008 was a great year to me having so many valuable blogfriendships, I want to thank you all for that!

Do you have some resolutions? I always have, even if there isn't a change of years ;-), here we go:

1. No chocolate nor lumps of cheese shall be eaten by me during Januari. In stead of that I will be art journaling. :-)

2. I'll try to write down a little family history together with my aunt, who isn't aware of this resolution, but I'll need her help to complete this one.

3. Starting a little project 'a smile a week'; I'll try to surprise somebody in a pleasant way once a week at least. Stay tuned for more about this project.

4. I want to blog more, write more often, perhaps (I will not make this one a promise!) shorter posts, create more!

(This is what I sent Elly winner of my October give away)

With of without resolutions 2009 will be a special year!

In April hubby and I will celebrate the fact that it is 30 years ago that we were dating for the first time. Oh my, there were times that I thought that 30 was an age for dinosaurs let alone that somebody could do anything for 30 years!

We booked a trip for 2009:

What do I have to say? Well, that we are all looking very much forward to this!

I do hope 2009 will be filled with fun and laughter for all of us!

What are your plans?

Christmas in Dordrecht

I am way behind. While I see decorated Christmas trees, presents, homemade cookies, all kind of decorations in every blog, I stil have to do an awful lot. Let's start to blog about the weekend of the 13th and 14th. Due to swaps and blogparties I haven't been able to show you this:

This is the Groenmarkt in Dordrecht on an average day (who thought these grey shutters could only be found in France?)
But half December it looks like this:

There is a Christmas market in the streets;

At one side of the street there are all kind of booths.

Like this one from 'de onderneming', one of my favorite antique shops.

On the other side there are houses

Some beautifully decorated to contribute to the Christmas atmosphere.
The best is this one; 'Wonen in de winkel' in translation: 'Living in the shop'

Two guys who open their home for public to sell all they have. And I have to say they have a lot. Even this cupboard was for sale, though it has a firm price ticket; 4.000 euros. You can walk through their house;

Enter the kitchen. I love it; it's the famous American kitchen designed by Raymond Loewy, who also designed the Coca Cola bottle and the Lucky Strike logo, to name a few.

Admire some clever ways of showing the merchandise.

These guys told me that they were getting tired of buying new cupboards so they decided to built one in. This one isn't for sale obviously. They buy at least one new antique or vintage complete dinner service every year.

The decorated Christmas tree was for sale too.

But I already decided not to do that. Neither did I buy a large tree this year, I bought a small one and I already had a plan how to decorate it;

Yep some shoes...

Some fine white embroidery....

a mask...all ingredients for:

The evening dress Christmas tree!
I have such a large tree every year that I wanted to do something special with this small one. Like every year the tree is decorated with glass ornaments; vintage ones;

like this one, that has belonged to my parents and is at least 50 years old. One of my favorites from childhood.

Or this vintage one, found during the last brocante hunt with my cousin.

We have new ornaments too.
There is no plain ball in our tree though.
I love these kind of ornaments that are still blown as they used to, real craftmanship;

I cannot help showing you this Kees ornament. A swan like bird, blown by a friend of my fathers' who died at the age of 54 of cancer. This time of the year is filled with memories, some good, some bad. I do hope everybody has a great Christmas with the ones you love, a Christmas to remember. Enjoy!

Christmas in Dordrecht

I am way behind. While I see decorated Christmas trees, presents, homemade cookies, all kind of decorations in every blog, I stil have to do an awful lot. Let's start to blog about the weekend of the 13th and 14th. Due to swaps and blogparties I haven't been able to show you this:

This is the Groenmarkt in Dordrecht on an average day (who thought these grey shutters could only be found in France?)
But half December it looks like this:

There is a Christmas market in the streets;

At one side of the street there are all kind of booths.

Like this one from 'de onderneming', one of my favorite antique shops.

On the other side there are houses

Some beautifully decorated to contribute to the Christmas atmosphere.
The best is this one; 'Wonen in de winkel' in translation: 'Living in the shop'

Two guys who open their home for public to sell all they have. And I have to say they have a lot. Even this cupboard was for sale, though it has a firm price ticket; 4.000 euros. You can walk through their house;

Enter the kitchen. I love it; it's the famous American kitchen designed by Raymond Loewy, who also designed the Coca Cola bottle and the Lucky Strike logo, to name a few.

Admire some clever ways of showing the merchandise.

These guys told me that they were getting tired of buying new cupboards so they decided to built one in. This one isn't for sale obviously. They buy at least one new antique or vintage complete dinner service every year.

The decorated Christmas tree was for sale too.

But I already decided not to do that. Neither did I buy a large tree this year, I bought a small one and I already had a plan how to decorate it;

Yep some shoes...

Some fine white embroidery....

a mask...all ingredients for:

The evening dress Christmas tree!
I have such a large tree every year that I wanted to do something special with this small one. Like every year the tree is decorated with glass ornaments; vintage ones;

like this one, that has belonged to my parents and is at least 50 years old. One of my favorites from childhood.

Or this vintage one, found during the last brocante hunt with my cousin.

We have new ornaments too.
There is no plain ball in our tree though.
I love these kind of ornaments that are still blown as they used to, real craftmanship;

I cannot help showing you this Kees ornament. A swan like bird, blown by a friend of my fathers' who died at the age of 54 of cancer. This time of the year is filled with memories, some good, some bad. I do hope everybody has a great Christmas with the ones you love, a Christmas to remember. Enjoy!