Making the most of burnt cookies

Last week I decided to bake some dinosaur cookies, but when the timer went off they weren't done yet so I went to my computer to check something and Mikkie (my cat) had to sit on my lap and with a cat on my lap time seems to stop existing and then the cookies were burnt.

So...

Bart and I decided to experiment with stop motion.

It's not even as bad as I thought it could be, but I'd love to experiment some more and get the lighting to be more consistent. And the dinosaurs need to roar.

A kind of huge update

I know I haven't been blogging much lately. I just feel so swamped and then I stress out so much I do almost nothing in the end en feel even more stressed out the next day... I still have to organize my internship (which is already starting in February!), final exams are coming up (less then a month left...) and the Dutch version of Christmas, Sinterklaas is next monday! I have all the gifts ready, but traditionally we also make a "surprise" (Dutch pronunciation: sur-PREE-seh) which is an elaborate way of gift wrapping, often in a specific shape, which has to relate to the gift inside ánd the (also traditional) poem. So... lots of work to do ^_^
It's always so much fun though, and very much worth all the hard work. It's just my parents and me, sitting around the fireplace with our enormous pile of gifts and eating ridiculous amounts of kruidnoten and speculaas.

This makes me realise how much typically Dutch things are associated with Sinterklaas! I think I'll have to do a Mythology Monday post about him next week! And I'll take pictures of all the exotic food :)

Some other news: I've been going to a bookbinding course for the past three weeks! I'm the only one below fifty (and therefore the only one not complaining about bad eyes and menopause related issues) but it's a lot of fun and I'm learning all kinds of things I had no idea about. I'll show some things I made there some time soonish, but in the meantime, you can see some notebooks I previously made here, here, here and here.

And last but not least: my mom and I finished a polar bear hooded scarf to go with this bag! Pictures will follow soon, but I can already promise you it's very, very cute :)

I'll be back soon!

Oh Land & Cat Bag

I went to the concert of Oh Land tonight. I also went to see her the last time she was in Amsterdam (you can read my ramblings about Nanna and her band and listen to their music here and here). I'll have a full post ready next week, but for now I just want to share something really cool.
The last time I went I wore my catbag and Nanna said she really liked it, so I made her one (together with my mom, because I'm not that great with a sewing machine) and gave it to her tonight...
And she already put a picture of her wearing it on facebook!

I hope she'll wear it a lot :)

Risotto recipe

I can't believe it's been more than a week since my last post! I do feel a bit swamped at the moment though... Lost of reading to do and my mother just had surgery on her foot so. It's nothing life-threatening, but she can't walk further than the bathroom for a while... Which means I have to do most of the cooking! (My dad can only make things that start with a p: pasta, pizza, pancakes and potatoes :P) I don't really mind though, because I can make anything I want now :)

Yesterday I made a mushroom risotto inspired by a recipe I found in the newspaper which was by Edwin Florès. I changed a lot of things though and it was delicious :)

This is what you'll need for three persons:

• 1 onion
• olive oil
• 300 g arborio rice
• a dash of white wine
• 400 g assorted mushrooms (I used a mix of oyster mushrooms, chanterelles, common mushrooms and some other things I don't know the names of but tasted very good)
• 1 l mushroom stock
• 2 spoons of crème fraîche
  
• 200 ml cream
• 50 g parmesan cheese
• A few leaves of fresh basil

What to do:

• Heat the olive oil in a large pan and chop the onion
• Fry the onion and add the rice
• Stir until the ricebecomes transparent
• Add the wine and a ladle of stock
• Fry the mushrooms in another pan with a few spoons of olive oil
• Keep adding stock to the rice until you've added about half of it
• Add half the mushrooms to the risotto
• Add more stock until the risotto is done, but not mushy
• Stir the crème fraîche and the cream through the risotto and let it cook a few more minutes
• Divide the risotto and the rest of the mushrooms between three plates
• And serve with some grated parmesan and fresh basil

I promise you it'll taste good!

At the park + Blogging for Confidence

The weather was very dreary today, so I'll just share some pictures of a wonderful sunny day spent with my boyfriend in the park. And not think about the enormous amount of rain that followed in the evening...

An upside of the massive amounts of rain we had here, is that the grass is greener then ever! And I'll have to do a post about the humongous amount of apples that are growing on our previously scrawny appletree!

Before we eat all the apples that is... :)

 You might notice that the grass in the foreground of this picture looks a bit weird. That's because it's a picnic blanket :)

I wanted to give it as a present for this sweet boy's birthday last year, but I gave it to him months later, because I coudn't stop adding flowers and bunnies to it :P 

I also decided it was time to do a Blogging for Confidence post. Meredith, of one sheepish girl started this series a while back and since then she has been knitting in public, wore bright red lipstick and dyed her hair blue!

So... I'm wearing shorts.

It was still pretty cold though, so I went easy on myself and wore tights under them. I'm so glad I did! I felt self-conscious enough already...

I put above mentioned sweet boy in charge of the picture making, which resulted in pictures where I either look very weird...

...or that are blurry....

And I'll spare you the dozen slighty inappropriate zoomed in pictures he made...

I'm glad a went through with wearing shorts though and that I have the evidence to prove it ;)
Maybe I'll tackle some more confidence issues soon! Knitting in public also makes me feel kind of nervous just thinking about it...

They're here... The pictures: Part 1

More than a week after I came home, but still!
So, Rome! It's such a beautiful city... I've been there once before, with school. We were told at least once a week for four years that Rome is the most wonderful city in the world, and I almost agree... You'll see what I mean in Part 2 ;)
So here are the pictures! I took 319 not-too-blurry pictures in Rome, so this is the top selection of the selection of the best pictures from the pictures that were not blurry :)

Our first evening in Rome, on the Piazza del Popolo, which was only a five minute walk from our hotel. Through the Via del Corso, the shopping street of Rome!

This birdbath is a little big...

The next morning, we went to the Villa Borghese. (Unfortunately no cameras allowed there...) We rented this bikelike thingey to cycle around the park around the museum. My boyfriend thought it was awesome, I though I was going to slip out of my seat.

This is a waterclock. It didn't give the right time, but it was still pretty cool :)

And then on to the Pantheon!

There was excavation site, and there were cats! I was just walking around and suddenly I saw all these cats! So of course I went picture crazy...

They were obviously strays, but they didn't look too malnourished and there was a bowl with water nearby... I really hope someone there feeds them...

This cat was really creepy though...

The Trevi fountain :)

And apparently this is how I look when I throw a coin...

Solving lifes mysteries on the Ponte Sant'Angelo: Yes, angels do need paintrollers. (What for is a different question entirely)

The Basilica di San Pietro. We went here on the warmest day and man was it hot on that square!

We hoped it was a bit cooler in the Vatican Musea, but no... I must have drank at least three liters of water that day!

The famour Laocoön group...

This one's cuter though :)

The light inside the Saint Peter's Basilica was so beautiful...

And then we went to see Harry Potter! It was in a quite far, kind of creepy district, the lights were on during the first five minutes of the movie, after an hour or so the movie suddenly stopped and everyone -thinking we had a break- rushed to the bathroom or popcorn, only to find out the movie had started again after thirty seconds. When the movie had finished we came to the conclusion that none of the busses got anywhere near our hotel, so we had to walk for an hour... on flip-flops...

I'm so glad we went though! I would have felt like the worst Potterfan if I hadn't seen it on the first day. And now I can't wait to see it again!

The next day on the Spanish steps :)

And to the Colloseum!

I didn't remember the Forum Romanum to be so boring, but is was... I couldn't believe that people still put flowers on the place of the pyre of Julius Caesar though! No matter how cool Roman history may be, the man was still a mass murderer...

 Saying goodbye to the Trevi fountain, while eating my last delicious peach and raspberry icecream...

If you ever go to Rome you definitely have to go to San Crispino for some peach and honey gelato!

And at Giolitti, when you ask for a scoop of nutella icecream, you just get an enormous scoop of cold nutella. I felt pretty nauseous but so happy after eating that!

And luckily my cointhrowing face has improved :)

That's all for now! I'd post the rest of the pictures soon. Or soonish. Or maybe in a week :)

If you have a holiday post, leave a link! I love watching holiday pictures!

Lots of Leisure time...

The first part of the next school year I'll probably have to go to school for only two days a week!
We get to pick our own subjects or packages of subjects for the first half year, so I spent the last couple of days picking out subjects I like and arranging them to fit on only Tuesday and Wednesday and now I've got it all figured out :)
I went through a lot of subjects though. First I wanted to do 3D-modelling and programming, but that didn't work out. Then I considered Astronomy, English proficiency, Ancient cultures, Game design, Ambient interaction (I don't even know what that means), Artificial Intelligence and Chemistry... Sometimes it isn't so great being interested in a lot of stuff :P And all the time I actually wanted to do something more creative! But I'll have plenty of time to draw and make notebooks in my own time now :)
I've chosen English literature, Japanese stories, Worldmyths and Classic literature. I'm so excited! It's just the thing for me. I really love books... And I'll finally have more time to do all the other things I love to do too :)

Another thing that makes me happy: I got the clothbound version of Wuthering Heights from my mother! It's so pretty it makes me want to stroke it and say sweet things to it... Re-reading that I realise it kind of has the same effect on me as a cat...

So with this one I have three books of the Clothbound Classics... The other ones are Pride & Prejudice and A Chrismas Carol. The latter was actually a gift from me to my father, but I am already thinking of some schemes to steal it back when I move out... In my defence: he didn't even read it!


Tomorrow I'm spending the whole day at home, working on my notebooks. I'm really looking forward to it! I'll share some pictures of my hopefully pretty notebooks tomorrow :)

I've got a Book and a Bag

But not just any Book and Bag...
You might remember the post I did a while ago about some lovely bird themed items I found on etsy. Well, I own one of those things now!
I have a Chewy the Owl bag!

I'm so in love with it I had to admire it a few days before sharing :) okay, okay, probably more like a week... But just look at it and you'll understand :)

Today was the first opportunity to take my gorgeous bag to school (I'm finally not feeling blegh anymore) and show it to my friends. Well, I think the first biologist who doesn't like animal shaped bags has yet to be born :)
The only downside to this bag is that I have to yawn every time I look at it... But no way that's going to stop me from wearing it!

And for the Book part... I couldn't wish for a more perfect notebook to accompany this bag. And you always know you can expect something good when you get a package like this:

Inside was the Clear Skies journal from boygirlparty! It isn't for sale in the etsy shop now, but you can still buy it here.

The inside pages have four different designs, for all the seasons. For some strange reason I forgot to take a picture of summer though... I really really hope this isn't some kind of omen...

I actually got it in the mail a few weeks before the bag, but I had to stop myself from posting it, because they are both gifts from my aunt and uncle. So (though they'll probably never read this): Thank you so much!

Now I just have to think what is worthy enough to be written in such a pretty notebook...
Any ideas?