Mmm, me like Ebly

Dear reader
Lieve lezer

When I am writing this blog... the sun is shining... the temperature is rising... In short, the weather is good! Yes, finally!

Terwijl ik deze blog schrijf... schijnt de zon... de temperatuur is in stijgende lijn... In het kort, het is mooi weer! Joepi, eindelijk!

When the weather is good, it is salad time! Since a couple of years we often use Ebly, wheat berry. It tastes really good with a salad. We use it as an alternative for potatoes. 

Wanneer het weer goed is, is het tijd voor een salade! Sinds enkele jaren gebruiken we hier regelmatig Ebly, een soort graankorrel, voor. Wij gebruiken het als een alternatief voor aardappelen.

You just have to prepare it as rice, but for the taste you need to add a bouillon cube for the flavor. 

Maak het klaar op dezelfde wijze als rijst, maar voeg een bouillon blokje toe voor wat extra smaak. 

Try it and let me know what you think of it.

Probeer het eens en laat me dan weten of je het lekker vond. 

Enjoy the weather!

Geniet van het weer!

Tania

PS: look at Pinterest page to find some links to tasty recipes. 

PS: Kijk naar mijn Pinterest pagina om enkele links te vinden naar lekkere recepten.

The flying animals sweater

Dear reader
Lieve lezer

I believe it is almost a year ago that I started sewing and I have never used a twin needle, just because I didn't know how easy it was. Fortunately I am following some lessons with a nice lady with a lot of patience.
Het is nu ongeveer een jaar geleden dat de naaimicrobe mij te pakken kreeg. Tot nu had ik nog nooit een tweelingsnaald gebruikt, gewoon omdat ik niet wist hoe eenvoudig het eigenlijk is. Gelukkig volg ik lessen bij een hele lieve en geduldige dame.

I needed the twin needle because I wanted to sew a "leather sweater" for my son. The pattern was published in the magazine of La Maison Victor and it is for a nice and comfortable sweater and the special effect is created by on the shoulders were another fabric can be used as a contrast with the other parts of the sweater.
De tweelingsnaald had ik nodig voor de "leather sweater" die ik wilde naaien voor mijn zoon. Het patroon staat in het tijdschrift La Maison Victor en het is voor een mooie en comfortabele sweater met een speciaal effect op de schouders. Daar gebruik je een contrasterende stof in combinatie met de rest van de trui.

I used green sweater fabric, brown nicky velour fabric and then I used a very cute fabric with airplanes, monkeys and ghosts on it. The fabric is called Animal flight by Lillestoff. The first time that my oldest son needed to fit the sweater, he didn't want to take off the sweater.
Ik gebruikte groene sweater stof in combinatie met bruine nicky velours en ik gebruikte ook een schattig tricot stofje met vliegtuigen, apen en spoken op. De stof noemt Animal flight van Lillestoff. De eerste keer dat mijn oudste zoon de trui moest passen, wilde hij deze al niet meer uit doen.

But he had to, because I needed to turn up the sleeves and the bottom of the sweater. Yesterday I did this and today he already went to school with it.
Maar hij moest wel, want de mouwen en de onderkant van de trui moesten nog omgezoomd worden.
Gisteren deed ik dit en vandaag is hij er al met naar school.

I am a proud mom...
Ik ben een fiere mama...

Read ya the next time!
Tot lees!

Tania

Yummy, Organix!

Hi there

When I started my blog, I mentioned the allergies of my son. He has an egg allergy and a severe peanut allergy.

A lot of cookies for baby's contains eggs or when it didn't contain eggs there was a trace of peanut mentioned on the cover. A couple months after we discovered his allergy, we found the cookies of Organix goodies. (www.organix.com)

The company was founded in 1992 and their cookies have a "no junk promise". This means that they commit to never add anything unnecessary to the biscuits. I love the idea behind that!

And the fact that my son may eat a lot of their products (and he also likes their biscuits), you already now what I buy in the shop. At this moment the favorites of my son are carot fingers and the alphabet biscuits. 

Depending from the country you live in, there is more or less choice. But do try the rice cakes! Especially the rice cakes with apple flavor.

Okay, enough publicity for one day. If you have tried it, do not hesitate to give your thought on it. 

Have a nice evening and read ya the next time!
Tania

Bags, bags, bags!!!

Dear reader

After a few weeks of illness it was time for some action! On my list: bags, bags and bags. And I loved it! You don't have to be an experienced sewer to start with an easy bag. 

My husband already asked for a sport bag for several months. But it is so difficult to find fabrics for men. Now I have used the army colors for the bag. Not so original and I was really disappointed in the lack of choice for him. Though, my husband is using the bag so it is approved. Yeah!!! I will try to add a picture later. 

The next items on my list was part of a gift. And I went for the summer theme. When you see the fabric, you will say; "that is not for summer". Black, red, blue... Though, everything I sewed is for the summer. And the fabric I used is based on the preferences I received.

I first started with a beach bag. Normally it is a pattern for a shopping bag, so with a lot of fusible interfacing. In my opinion it wasn't necessary for a beach bag, which doesn't need to be so stiff. 

As the beach bag was rather big, I also sewed a little clutch with a nice red placket on the outer fabric. So easy to put a little bit of money in it or your mobile phone. With the wrist belt it is also real easy to carry the cocktails from the beach bar. 

With some fabric leftovers I sewed several cases for sunglasses and a lip balm holder.

And I don't know what you think, but with these bags we are ready for summer! 

Enjoy the nice weather

Tania

Keep calm and shimmy

Hello there

I just noticed that I haven't told you anything about my other hobby, belly dancing, and maybe it is a good time now to tell you why I started belly dancing. Certainly, because it surprises everyone when I tell about my hobby.

Why are they surprised? Well, I doesn't fit in the regular clothing sizes and I certainly have a belly to belly dance. (I blame my sons for that belly, but they were certainly worth it) But still this one hour a week brings me a lot of happiness. But let start at the beginning...

I was looking for a hobby close to my home and that week all the dance classes were starting again after the summer holidays. So I tried belly dancing and clip dancing. I was only 5 minutes in the belly dance lesson and I knew immediately: "This is it!". 

So now I am already at my, I believe, 6th year of belly dancing and it still brings me as much joy as in the beginning. After a frustrating week, it just feels so good to "shimmy" everything off. Even during my pregnancies I went to the classes. With my oldest son I was still dancing a month before labor. I think it was a pretty view for the other belly dancers. So ladies, don't stop with belly dancing because you are pregnant! 

An important reason why I also keep going to the classes week after week, is the great atmosphere. Our teacher doesn't make a distinction between her students. Young, old, big, small... everybody is welcome. This makes that people like me feel comfortable to dance, even on stage.

We just have the right balance between dancing, laughing, discussing, learning new techniques and that makes that I just love to belly dance.

Have a nice weekend 

Tania

Don't feed me please

Dear readers

As I told you in the beginning I have a son who is allergic to eggs and life threatening allergic to peanuts. It never worried me walking through a shop or walking where a people are eating.

Until a few weeks ago. A little girl offered a M&M to my son. I thought my heart just stopped at that point. Fortunately I was just in time to stop him from eating it, but since then I was looking for a solution to come outside with him on a bit safer way.

It can happen in a second that he sees something he wants to eat it and he is only 20 months, he just doesn't realize that it is dangerous for him.

But now we have found a way to inform people about his allergy: A button with a notification of his allergies: "Don't feed me - Peanut/egg allergy"

I hope this will help informing people about his allergy and that they may not give food to him. Meanwhile we can "train" him in not accepting food which isn't approved by us, his parents. That is the hardest part! Because he is so crazy about food at this moment. 


Anyway, I am so happy with these buttons that I am considering a T shirt with such a message on it. It would be useful the first week he goes to school or when he goes on a school trip.

What do you use to inform people about the allergy of your child?

Have a nice evening

Tania

When a good idea turns bad

Hi there!

Remember last week? When I was so enthusiastic about the Easter baskets I would sew? 

Well it was a good idea, but it went wrong. Not completely, but still... So let me take you into my journey of making these Easter baskets and try to find the mistakes....

The first problem I had was the time pressure. Only the cutting of the fabric took more time than foreseen, which meant that I had only 2 evenings for sewing the 2 baskets. Or read 1 evening and 1 night... Because it ended up with me sewing till 3 o'clock in the morning. 

My second issue was my basic experience in sewing. I for example had to create the opening for the mouth and at a certain point I needed to turn the fabric so the 2 good sides were at the outside. I already did this several times, but now it just didn't work! 

I solved it by sewing the opening and the beak with a very small stitch (the one you would use for the opening for a button). And at one of the sides a small piece of interfacing was still visible, but I was so tired at that stage that I have left it like that. 

But in the morning I saw that everything ended up well. My 2 little boys didn't notice the imperfections and they have been running around with their baskets for the egg hunt. And even now, after Easter, they play with it. It's their storage for cars. 

When I see the face of my boys, I forget all the problems I had when sewing it and I think "Yes, I did it!"

Have a nice Easter holiday! 

Tania


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