Another weekend without plans has come and gone. Delightful. Spent the Saturday shopping and sorting my beads into the new box I got for them. Geez, I have a lot of beads for someone who doesn't really do anything with them. (They're just so shiny!)

On Thursday I had rolled some felt dreads from purple and pink wool and Saturday I put them onto a hair clip. Instant dreads. I also adjusted the shoulder straps of my vest so the whole thing would fit better but didn't finish it before watching t.v. in the evening. Matthijs worked on his coat a good part of the day and the Sunday too. So there's progress at last!

On Sunday we had a nice breakfast with fresh orange juice, buns and boiled eggs and after that went into the sewing room again. Matthijs worked on his coat and I finished my vest. It's cute! After that I painted butterflies onto a sweater. One of the butterflies is hiding a BisonTix stain, the whole reason for the 'pimping'. I also made a very cute platypus cuddly toy, from the pattern you find here. Just because I can.

In the evening I combined a recipe for 'kruidnoten' with some old left over 'amandelspijs' into 'gevulde speculaas'. It was very yummy and there's still some left.
I just love crafting!

• Going to Jozeph (musical) on Friday
• sewing a new balfolk skirt on Saturday
• baking pie for the Noabers folk night
• dancing at the balfolk
• more sewing; finally a start on the mock-up for Matthijs' winter coat and a vest (gilet) for me
• listening to the new CD of the Gonnagles
• 5 minute chocolate cake (look for the comment from Alice on the 11th of April 2009, she has the right measurements)
• pancakes, my favourite food
• watching t.v., Criminal Minds and Law and Order
• sleep, zzzz.

We planned the Sunday free to work on Matthijs' new winter coat, for which we already have the pattern cut out and the fabric in a box, however we ended up tidying the hobby room instead.

It all started with the livingroom being littered with empty banana boxes which we used to transport our larp stuff for Lex in. We thought we might put some stuff from the hobby room into boxes and ended up rearranging most of the stuff in the room.

That's all a good thing because Jojo and her boyfriend will be staying here next Saturday after the Noabers balfolk night and they'll be sleeping in that room. There's actually space free for their bed now.

Still, Matthijs' winter coat isn't really progressing. Let's just hope it gets finished before spring. I was planning to work on a little vest made out of tie-and-dye fabric to match a skirt I made, but that didn't happen either. Ah well, better luck some other time.

Sometimes it's the small things that make you feel good. Like finally replacing the handle of your car door (which broke off one time when the door was frozen shut) and the broken outer mirror (vertical breakline just off-center) by a new one. Of course after the boyfriend has gone to the junkyard to get the spare parts. He got the parts, we fixed them together.

Survived, barely. I haven't even been close enough to the pool to get wet from splashes, had no time to read, draw or lucet. Of course I could have taken some breaks but next to cooking there was a lot of cleaning/tidying to do (which I can't ignore) so now my feet are complaining and I'm not going to sports tonight.

It was quite an experience, though I don't know if I'd do it again. The kitchen was really good with enough pans, sieves, large cooking isle, great dish washer and trolleys for transporting the food. I don't think I would've been a happy camper with any less than this.

It all started on Friday afternoon. We planned on leaving at 13:30 but of course some last minute printing made it 14:00. No sweat, we had enough time (though I already started fretting about the groceries and all the pancakes) and arrived somewhere around 16:00 in the middle of nowhere in Friesland.

We were called while on our way that Sna had a flat tire and would be later. Unfortunately Laurens was also in that car. Laurens would be the second cook and coordinator of the kitchen and he would be late. Even later when the spare tire turned out to be flat too.

I asked Nokey to help me do the grocery shopping, since he would be cooking for the vegetarians on Saturday and needed some supplies for that. Together we went to the supermarket where we spent about 2 hours getting only the stuff for Fridaynight and Saturday morning. Fortunately a helpful manager personally packed all our groceries into banana boxes so that we could tetris it all into the car easily. (I love my car!)

We had only been back 10 minutes when Laurens arrived and we quickly went into the kitchen to get to work. Later than planned of course. E voila, first problem arises. I had not gotten everything that was needed. There was no butter on the shopping-list, I forgot all of the ingredients for snacks (didn't look further on my list than Friday dinner) etc. Fortunately Peter and Jo were nice enough to drive to the supermarket for us to get the remaining stuff while we started cooking.

Working strategy: unpack what is needed for dinner, put everything else somewhere in a corner to unpack later and get to work. I did most of the baking, some people helped cutting paprika, onions and mushrooms and Laurens took care of the appetizer (soup with baked bread) and the heating of the prepared pancakes in the oven. I was really really glad I'd made those 40 pancakes on Thursday.

Lots of dishes of course (thank heavens for the dish washer), and the occasional person popping in for some of the last pancakes or a soda/beer. Vampires don't eat, so there could be no more food in the 'field'. We unpacked the rest of the groceries and prepared a food-trolley in the hallway for people to get some refreshments.

We (mostly Laurens) made some fresh midnight snacks (chocolate cake) and prepared a breakfast trolley. Went to bed at 06:30 because the room I slept in was also the 'spelkot' and in use.

Saturday saw another run to the supermarket in the afternoon. However, we had prepared a decent list this time, grouped by category and that worked so much better. At dinner we concluded that we had not made enough potatoes to accompany the stew, so we threw in some bread. Which meant two things: we had probably not bought enough potatoes for the Sunday ('stampot') either and bread was going faster than planned. It was 20:15 and most supermarkets were already closed. Matthijs looked up a supermarket that was still open (30 minute drive to Assen) and I jumped into the car and drove all the way to there (the navigation system telling me that it was in an unreachable area... nice) and had 8 minutes left to do the shopping.

That got my stress level up allright. Had a small nervous breakdown in 'my' bedroom and then went back to the kitchen to pick up work again. I made salt-pepper sticks from puff pastry and we did some more salty snacks and some more cake. It was all received very well.

Sunday 'stampot' with for desert ice and (freshly!) whipped cream. Way too much 'stampot'.... Then a plan to get as much foods and drinks consumed so that we would not have as much stuff to take back with us. It really helps when you expose people to the food and drink (instead of having it in the fridge) and occasionally even bring it to them. Went to bed 'early' (02:00).

Monday morning breakfast and then cleaning everything up and leaving. Matthijs and I went to Terherne to scout a possible location for Exodus but that one is not going to be it. Too far away, not enough space and soon non-exclusive. Tonight some improvised macaroni dinner and an early night, tomorrow evaluation.